No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
I’m not sure that I am the right person to review this novel about twitter and the impact of spending a large amount of time using social media. I am a sixty three year old man and so the first thing I do when I wake up is to look at the BBC news headlines on my i-phone, complete wordle and the covid survey before putting it down and picking up my current book. I use social media but, because my habits were formed many years ago, I can and do cut off and revert to books, newspapers, the BBC and all the other familiar communication sources that provide my window on the world.
From all I’ve read, Patricia Lockwood has drawn hugely on our own life and experiences for this story. Her protagonist is a youngish female writer who has made her reputation online, attracting attention and followers for her witty aphorisms on twitter before branching out into articles and lectures about these new ways that we use to communicate. Lockwood’s career has followed a similar trajectory and includes a powerful online poem ‘The Rape Joke’ that went viral and was based on her own traumatic experience.
Lockwood writes beautifully, and she brilliantly conjures up the hyper creativity of her protagonist’s mind that moves almost instantaneously from absurdist or surrealist thought to profound observation in a millennial stream of consciousness. I was convinced that she had captured the way that today’s online users see technology and social media as part of their reality and, as a result, think differently from someone like me whose mind is analogue. There were, of course, some references that were lost on me and I must admit that I didn’t really understand why the tweet which established the protagonist as a major online presence – “can a dog be twins” – went viral? Is it a modern version of the aphorisms that Francis Bacon popularised in the 17th century or is Lockwood pointing out that this is ridiculous? I guess that’s a strength of the book because we cannot uninvent the online world and Lockwood is assiduous, via her protagonist, in reminding us of its positives - the sense of community, openness and opportunity to take on a different identity that new technology offers. Yet she also explores the pile-ons and obsessions of this world.
Whether this thoughtful and stylistically bold exploration of the way her intelligent and plugged in protagonist has adapted and evolved as part of the internet’s hive mind is enough to sustain my interest…well, I don’t have to worry about that. You see, to resort to one of my favourite clichés oft-used in these reviews: this is a book of two halves. Now, both halves are good but, after this unsettling and funny start, Lockwood introduces a shocking real world element to her story. The protagonist’s pregnant sister learns that her baby has developed an unusual and awful condition that will blight and prematurely end its life. From this point on, the writing becomes more emotionally charged and slightly more conventional as we see the characters wrestle with their grief and their overwhelming joy at sharing the baby’s precious moments of life.
You can see how easy it would be to conclude that Lockwood wants to show that the protagonist is transformed by her love and understands that the online world is not real nor emotionally substantial. Well, she is transformed by her love but Lockwood doesn’t move to such a pat conclusion. To be honest, I’m not sure what conclusion she reaches but I did find the second half of the book genuinely affecting; and yet the solipsism that is heightened online is at the forefront of this part of the story because the protagonist focuses on her love and grief - the baby’s parents seem peripheral.
This is a hard book for someone like me to properly describe for all the reasons I’ve explained. I believe that a younger person may grasp its nuances better than me. However, the first half of the book did give me insight into the mind of a regular internet presence – the detached, ironic tone, the angular, imaginative connections and the way a communal view or feeling emerges and evolves – and the second half gave me an insight into love and grief in extremis. How they fit together…I’m not sure but two out of three ain’t bad.
This is another book that’s hard for me to wholeheartedly recommend. It was Booker shortlisted, but that doesn’t mean much. Lockwood has a distinctive wit and style that constantly grabbed my attention. Google her – how appropriate - and you’ll get a better idea about what she has to offer.