Release Date: Expected 6th July 2023
Publisher: Headline | Tinder Press
When Kurt's phone rings during sex - and he reaches to pick it up - Susan knows that their marriage has passed the point of no return. Since they swapped their family home for an 'executive' newbuild on an estate still under construction, she has felt ever more aware that there is something missing in her life: the absence of any kind of meaningful communication with Kurt, who only has Facetime for Wendy (the nickname she has given to the ubiquitous phone), or her twin boys, with whom she communicates via notes left on the middle shelf of the fridge.
This sense of loss becomes increasingly focused on a cache of handwritten letters, from her first love, Antony, mementoes of a time when devotion seemed to spill out easily onto paper. Increasingly desperate and out of synch with the contemporary world, Susan embarks on a journey of discovery that will reconnect her to her younger self, while simultaneously revealing her future.
This sense of loss becomes increasingly focused on a cache of handwritten letters, from her first love, Antony, mementoes of a time when devotion seemed to spill out easily onto paper. Increasingly desperate and out of synch with the contemporary world, Susan embarks on a journey of discovery that will reconnect her to her younger self, while simultaneously revealing her future.
"He is always the latest him, whilst I remain the same old me."
At first, I was a little worried this was going to be another kettle-logic story romanticising the old days where there were no phones but also no antibiotics or vaccines. I wasn't totally wrong, but there was definitely some nuance and substance to this story.
Speak to Me makes some touching and beautiful observations about connections, and how lost people can feel even with people all around them. It looks at the dangers of people who spend too long curating a meaningful social media feed rather than living a happy life, who have more followers than friends.
We get on deeply personal terms with Susan right away - our first meeting with her being during an intimate moment with her husband. Although I found it very hard to connect with her - her narration was extremely disjointed, feeling like parts of different stories, blurring the lines between her journals and letters with the present day which just didn't work for me. I found Susan herself very stubborn and condescending - she blamed technology and contemporary life for her problems rather than addressing the issues and boundaries in her relationship, she didn't really go through any personal development and refuses to adapt or grow in any way. I did feel her frustration, her loneliness, her desire for connection but I just couldn't find my way past her rigidity and coldness. Although, I definitely joined in her in her deep love for books.
A slow story, filled with snapshots of domestic life and days gone by, lots of little moments that fit together to create a picture - with a painstaking attention to detail that makes the scenes so vivid. A socially observant and entertaining story with lots of heart.
"Funny how persuasive the most implausible hope can be. Actually, it is not funny."
⭐⭐⭐
I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.
cw: loss of children, mentions of cancer/surgery, sex.
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