Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz (1968)

A "reality novel," purportedly transcribed from taped conversations of three friends over the summer of 1965 in the Hamptons.

Book Review:  The introduction to Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz adamantly states that none "of the dialogue in this book was invented." The dialogue, however, was edited, so one may wonder where the editing started and stopped; we'll never know. Originally published in 1968, this books consists of the conversations of three wealthy 30-somethings who are no more deep or intelligent than anyone you might accidentally overhear at the next table at Starbucks while pretending to look at your phone: all three of them have a "need" to be famous; one of them wants to be rich "so I can have whatever I want." Not real deep or original. An ex-lover is described as "not a particularly good or exceptional or even interesting person." Neither are the trio of friends who don't even seem that much like friends. The first really interesting thing I read showed up three quarters of the way through Talk. Supposedly it's a funny book, and there were a few good lines, not all intentional. The most striking characteristic was their constant (I do mean constant) discussion of and reliance on psychotherapy. As someone who can't afford a shrink, it was somewhat disturbing, but apparently normal for the time and social class; Woody Allen spoke a lot about it. Enough slagging. What did I like about Talk? The concept. This book raises a host of ideas, such as in my first sentence above. And why aren't there dozens of books like this, or is that what reality shows are? And we do know how "real," deep, and meaningful reality shows are, don't we? Paraphrasing Mark Twain, fiction must be more believable than reality, because fiction has to make sense. Not that there's anything unbelievable here, but that's the kind of idea this book got me thinking about. A worthwhile experiment, as in a lab or focus group, but it was really kind of tiring, tho admittedly voyeuristic, to work through the conversations. An interesting curio of the '60s, thought-provoking more for the experiment than for the substance. [Re-released in 2015 as part of the New York Review Books Classics series][3 Stars]