Summer is here or as close as we will enjoy Summer during these trying times. I have a recommendation for a good beach read. Actually I enjoyed this novel so much that it is a good book for any season. Novels are not my preference for reading but the synopsis and reviews for this book were very intriguing. I finished this book in 2 1/2 days (301 pages) as it was a compelling story. It would make an interesting movie.

Ted Grayson is a 59 year old network news anchor (think Tom Brokaw) who endures a string of catastrophic personal events: his wife has found a new love and is divorcing him, his daughter, Franny is estranged from him and he is losing his highly visible and well paid network job after suffering a verbal meltdown caught online at a woman employee.

The meltdown exposes him to national public ridicule and drives him to deep depression. Worse, his daughter who writes for an expose blog (think a hard core TMZ), publishes an article describing her rocky relationship with Grayson.

Grayson examines his past, his marriage, his relationship with Franny, his career and what he has accomplished in life. Grayson is torn between resignation and redemption.

What I also enjoy is some of the insights about life, aging and the media from the book that struck home:

“Life was in the rearview mirror now for Ted. It was no longer a time of beginnings. It was a time for endings. Endings to jobs, marriages, friendships. It was the time of life when more and more, the news from friends was bad.”

“Fake news? There was no such thing. There is only what you could get people to click on… The mission wasn't to inform. The mission was to sell to advertisers. Click, friend, at your own peril.”

“Godwin's law. I think he was some lawyer guy. He said that if an online discussion goes long enough, at some point, no matter what the topic, someone will compare someone else to Hitler.”

I liked the ending as it was a bit unexpected and intriguing. ( )

Most of the time that I was reading Talk to Me by John Kenney, I felt that it was a lightweight novel, not overly well-written, funny at times, but mostly I felt that I was being manipulated. Now that I’ve just finished the book, I’m cutting it a great deal more slack, as overall I enjoyed the few hours spent with it. The book is centered on long-time network anchor Ted Grayson, his estranged wife Claire, and their daughter, Franny, who has also become distant from her dad, the world-famous, globe-trotting, news figurehead. The story contrasts the standard world of a network and its trusted anchor sitting in that chair five nights a week, with the internet world of social media and websites that are out for the ever-changing and more scandalous side of news. Our culture has richly rewarded these quick churning online reports of shocking behavior, true—or just posed and reported. The best stories are those that can stay in the news by being attacked or morphed quickly into something newer and more exciting, it seems that it really doesn’t matter as long as more pulsating, eye-catching stories keep coming out.

The key event was when a severely stressed out (soon to be divorced) Ted screamed at a Polish woman doing his hair all wrong, that she was a Russian whore. Reflecting our times, the scene is fully captured on a phone and the video quickly goes viral, taking Ted’s long career down quickly. Daughter Franny is working for a slimy web platform that immediately tells her to write an ‘up close and personal’ story on her dad. She writes the story with all the personal and embarrassing private touches, but doesn’t post it—only to have the CEO grab it off the company’s cloud and post it himself under her name. Okay, so absolutely none of the battle lines in this story are subtle, everybody is dragged through the mud, but in the end, this manipulated reader enjoyed the story and its conclusion. As I had been searching for a distraction, this fit the bill perfectly … I was drawn in, amused, and entertained.

Little is subtle in Talk to Me, including its first line: “Ted Grayson had been pushed out of an airplane,” which is a part of the plot that’s not fleshed-out until many pages later. The book reminds me of an old Stephen King interview, one in which he said that he certainly can’t write like Shakespeare, but he really knows how to push people’s buttons. John Kenney pushed enough of my buttons to always keep me turning the page. ( )

Talk to Me by John Kenney begins as if picked from the headlines, and I am not sure I want to read about today's realities. Then, the book turns in a different, more compelling direction - a story of a father and a daughter and a commentary on quickly changing public opinion especially as influenced by today's overabundance of "news" sources and open forums on which to state that opinion. The book is entertaining but also leaves me reflecting on this very serious reality.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/05/talk-to-me.html

Reviewed for Penguin First to Read program. ( )

Talk to Me by John Kenney is both a classic story (a person high on society's ladder falls long and hard) and a contemporary social commentary piece (social media, especially where it intersects with journalism).

The characters are not necessarily likable but that does not mean we can't feel empathy for them. Even while the event that leads to Ted Grayson's downfall is playing out Kenney lets us into his head so that we can see the misunderstanding that causes his outburst and we can see his immediate remorse even while he also immediately starts rationalizing what he did. It does not change what he said and did but it offers insight, which will be missing when it goes viral.

We have the usual domestic problems, a marriage on the rocks and a daughter that hates her father. In this arena we again are privy to thoughts that help us understand (though not usually condone) what happens. This domestic drama plays out in the public eye, and this is where the social commentary comes in.

The video goes viral, people are outraged, careers are broken while others are made. The juxtaposition of the humanizing thoughts of these characters with the click bait world of sweeping generalizations and either/or judgments makes the current world of social media and click bait journalism seem even more cold and calculating than it is. And it is plenty cold and calculating.

I would recommend this to readers who might like to see how a classic "great fall" narrative plays out in a social media world. Also any readers who simply like either type of story.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads' First Reads. ( )

Talk to Me by John Kenney is a very highly recommended, brilliant, wry commentary on news in the current age of social media and the fall-out which results from a public thrashing.

The narrative opens with Ted Grayson contemplating suicide by not opening his parachute while skydiving. What would lead a man to this? Ted is a fifty-nine-year-old beloved news anchor at the peak of his career when an ill-advised profanity-laced outburst directed toward a young hairstylist is recorded. She puts it on social media and the video goes viral. As public opinion is created through sound bites in this age of immediate gratification and most people seem to obtain their news through social media and memes, the fall-out is instantaneous.

Unknown to most people is that Ted's personal life is already in shambles. His wife of 30 years, Claire, has fallen in love with another man and is planning to divorce him. He has been estranged for years from his adult daughter, Frances, a writer for a popular sensational fake news website. He has some health concerns that he has kept secret from everyone. All Ted really had was his career and onscreen news persona. Any question of actually listening to Ted about what happened and why he had the tirade is dismissed. Now he has nothing and Ted's reputation and career are destroyed as the sound bites take over, the press attacks continue, and protests begin.

Talk to Me is outstanding. This is the novel that I have been waiting to see written and Kenney does an excellent job capturing the public outcry following a ripped-from-the-headlines situation that has gone viral and is out of control. In this age of news via assumptions, memes, quick judgements, and instantly taking offense, Talk to Me demonstrates how reporting the news has been replaced with people looking for the sensational and the worst in all situations based on their viewpoints. Stories are based on what is trending, with the number of comments ruling. People are quick to form an opinion, be offended, and take a stance based on incomplete or incorrect facts. Yeah, Ted seriously messed up in a career-ending move and needed the wake-up call, but the continued media onslaught was excessive.

The development of the characters is exceptional. They are all flawed, selfish, damaged people, but Kenney's memorable portrayal makes them sympathetic even when you question their judgement. The video of this one mistake Ted makes has gone viral, but a life consists of many mistakes. How many of us could endure the media scrutiny of every nuance of our lives and come out flawless. They have all made a shambles of their lives and the very public downfall of Ted's career and the subsequent media feeding frenzy is amplifying their flaws. There is a moment when a small glimmer of hope enters the narrative toward the end that offers some hope.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/01/talk-to-me.html ( )