Talk to Me: A Novel

by T. C. Boyle

Overview

From bestselling and award-winning author T.C. Boyle, a lively, thought-provoking novel that asks us what it would be like if we could really talk to the animals

When animal behaviorist Guy Schermerhorn demonstrates on a TV game show that he has taught Sam, his juvenile chimp, to speak in sign language, Aimee Villard, an undergraduate at Guy's university, is so taken with the performance that she applies to become his assistant.  A romantic and intellectual attachment soon morphs into an interspecies love triangle that pushes hard at the boundaries of consciousness and the question of what we know and how we know it.  

What if it were possible to speak to the members of another species—to converse with them, not just give commands or coach them but to really have an exchange of ideas and a meeting of minds? Did apes have God?  Did they have souls?  Did they know about death and redemption?  About prayer?  The economy, rockets, space?  Did they miss the jungle?  Did they even know what the jungle was?  Did they dream?  Make wishes?  Hope for the future?

These are some the questions T.C. Boyle asks in his wide-ranging and hilarious new novel Talk to Me, exploring  what it means to be human, to communicate with another, and to truly know another person—or animal… 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063052833
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	509,449
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

T.C. Boyle is an American novelist and short-story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twelve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his third novel, World’s End, and the Prix Médicis étranger (France) in 1995 for The Tortilla Curtain. His novel Drop City was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. Most recently, he has been the recipient of the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Henry David Thoreau Prize, and the Jonathan Swift Prize for satire. He is a Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Barbara.

Hometown:

Santa Barbara California

Date of Birth:

December 2, 1948

Place of Birth:

Peekskill, New York

Education:

B.A. in music, State University of New York at Potsdam, 1970; Ph.D. in literature, Iowa University, 1977

Website:

http://www.tcboyle.com/

Editorial Reviews

The novel is one of Boyle’s recent best…the virtuoso…[Boyle’s] masterly storytelling and shrewd social commentary have much in common with Charles Dickens; his laid-back, colloquial prose is maximalist rather than minimalist, with a touch of acute satire...If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief about anthropomorphism, you’ll enjoy this gripping and inescapably bittersweet book.” — Boston Globe

"Talk to Me—told alternately from the point of view of the human and chimp characters—finds a sensitive issue and dives deep into an exploration that locks on and won’t let go. . . . Against a backdrop of lurid news stories of chimps living with humans, where things go horribly wrong, this novel makes a visceral kind of sense and raises uncomfortable issues of human relationships with other species. Highly recommended." — Library Journal (starred review)

“ If the measure of a good story is how often you think about it after you are done, then Talk to Me . . . hits the mark. . . . Talk to Me feels real and relevant ” — BookTrib

“Boyle eloquently lays out the philosophical and ethical debates of raising chimps in a human household…Boyle poignantly exposes our anthropocentric biases while exploring the nature of consciousness and reminds us of the adage about the most dangerous species in the zoo being the humans.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

If the measure of a good story is how often you think about it after you are done, then Talk to Me . . . hits the mark. . . . Talk to Me feels real and relevant 

BookTrib

Boyle eloquently lays out the philosophical and ethical debates of raising chimps in a human household…Boyle poignantly exposes our anthropocentric biases while exploring the nature of consciousness and reminds us of the adage about the most dangerous species in the zoo being the humans.

Booklist

The novel is one of Boyle’s recent best…the virtuoso…[Boyle’s] masterly storytelling and shrewd social commentary have much in common with Charles Dickens; his laid-back, colloquial prose is maximalist rather than minimalist, with a touch of acute satire...If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief about anthropomorphism, you’ll enjoy this gripping and inescapably bittersweet book.

Boston Globe

Boyle eloquently lays out the philosophical and ethical debates of raising chimps in a human household…Boyle poignantly exposes our anthropocentric biases while exploring the nature of consciousness and reminds us of the adage about the most dangerous species in the zoo being the humans.

Booklist

★ 09/24/2021

Like many of Boyle's novels (The Harder They Come; the PEN/Faulkner winner World's End), this latest—told alternately from the point of view of the human and chimp characters—finds a sensitive issue and dives deep into an exploration that locks on and won't let go. Sam, a chimp raised by humans, appears on a talk show with Guy, a California State professor who has raised Sam and taught him sign language. A student named Aimee sees Sam on TV and volunteers to work with him. That Sam might be dangerous, with twice the strength of a human, adds great uncertainty to the enterprise. When Moncrief, the actual owner of Sam, suddenly takes him away to be housed in a terrifying chimp farm, Guy's academic studies are ruined, and Aimee is bereft. Aimee goes to the farm and eventually breaks Sam free from captivity, but while they are able to hide for a short time, the story ends in tragedy. VERDICT Against a backdrop of lurid news stories of chimps living with humans, where things go horribly wrong, this novel makes a visceral kind of sense and raises uncomfortable issues of human relationships with other species. Highly recommended.—Henry Bankhead, San Rafael P.L., CA

Library Journal

Stacey Glemboski performs this unique audiobook about the power of human love for an animal with a convincing style and unswerving fairness. The warmth in her voice and her skilled pacing work well. She has a fine ability to get inside the thoughts of the characters—human and simian. An unusual love triangle—among a researcher, an assistant, and Sam the chimp—serves as the hinge for a remarkable story. The tale of a chimp that can communicate with sign language is both wondrous and ominous: The professor who studies the chimp appears on the TV show “To Tell the Truth” with his gifted charge but does his research at the behest of a heartless boss. This is an enjoyable excursion into the links between humans and animals. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Stacey Glemboski performs this unique audiobook about the power of human love for an animal with a convincing style and unswerving fairness. The warmth in her voice and her skilled pacing work well. She has a fine ability to get inside the thoughts of the characters—human and simian. An unusual love triangle—among a researcher, an assistant, and Sam the chimp—serves as the hinge for a remarkable story. The tale of a chimp that can communicate with sign language is both wondrous and ominous: The professor who studies the chimp appears on the TV show “To Tell the Truth” with his gifted charge but does his research at the behest of a heartless boss. This is an enjoyable excursion into the links between humans and animals. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile