- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (3 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434008540
- ISBN-13: 978-0434008544
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,924,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
B Magazine
‘Girl Talk is a divinely written and moving read about love, life and mothers. Do yourself a favour, read it!’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Hello
A fabulous first novel made for summer reading· A warm, touching book...
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
One month before my father died in the fall of 1999. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
One month before my father died in the fall of 1999. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I recently read Girl Talk for a second time having brought the book on holiday three years previously. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoyed it and I'm surprised to find no reviews for the book on Amazon.co.uk.
The premise is simple. Lissy Jablonski's father Bob unexpectedly runs off with a Red Headed Bank Teller during the summer of 1985 - the summer that never happened as Lissy will refer to it in the years following. This event sets her Mother on a path of truthfulness and she decides to show Lissy her past, in Bayonne New Jersey.
The continuous switching between the present and the past (both Lissy's and her Mother's) never gets confusing and serves to build the story to an emotional climax, with plots in the three eras each getting their own conclusion.
Julianna Baggott has a unique style. The characters she creates in Church, Dotty, Dino and Ruby Pantuliano, Anthony and Kitty Hawk are so well drawn and full of flaws that they feel like real people. Lissy - the tales protagonist - is almost lost among these strong characters, but through her eyes we see the world in the 1960's (retelling her Mother's truths), 1985 and 1999.
I lent the book to a friend recently who found the continued use of graphic terms for a certain part of Anthony Pantuliano's anatomy, and some of the more direct descriptions, off putting. If you're a little sensitive and like flowery and cotton wool wrapped imagery, then this probably isn't the book for you. Personally, I loved the style and never found any of the more adult content to be out of place.
The premise is simple. Lissy Jablonski's father Bob unexpectedly runs off with a Red Headed Bank Teller during the summer of 1985 - the summer that never happened as Lissy will refer to it in the years following. This event sets her Mother on a path of truthfulness and she decides to show Lissy her past, in Bayonne New Jersey.
The continuous switching between the present and the past (both Lissy's and her Mother's) never gets confusing and serves to build the story to an emotional climax, with plots in the three eras each getting their own conclusion.
Julianna Baggott has a unique style. The characters she creates in Church, Dotty, Dino and Ruby Pantuliano, Anthony and Kitty Hawk are so well drawn and full of flaws that they feel like real people. Lissy - the tales protagonist - is almost lost among these strong characters, but through her eyes we see the world in the 1960's (retelling her Mother's truths), 1985 and 1999.
I lent the book to a friend recently who found the continued use of graphic terms for a certain part of Anthony Pantuliano's anatomy, and some of the more direct descriptions, off putting. If you're a little sensitive and like flowery and cotton wool wrapped imagery, then this probably isn't the book for you. Personally, I loved the style and never found any of the more adult content to be out of place.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
65 reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
What a fun book!
5 Feb 2001
Format:Hardcover
GIRL TALK is one of those novel that starts out being about one woman -- one woman with a BIG problem that is only going to get bigger -- and ends up being about all women. About the world in which women live, the secrets they keep, the fights they choose and the ones they pass. Their mothers, their friends, their lovers and their ghosts. The ending will remind you that Baggott is a poet, as well as fiction writer. You will not be disappointed.
A wonderful addition to writers who came of age after the Vietnam War!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A well written, wonderful book
5 Mar 2001
Format:Hardcover
Although I didn't know what to expect from Girl Talk, it was not such a touching, honest portrayal of a relationship between a mother and daughter. Our heroine, now a single advertising executive living in Manhattan, looks back on a rather bizarre summer she spent with her mother, tracing events that took place then and thinking about the effects they have had on her present life. A complicated, somewhat strange woman, Lissy's mother used this summer to tell Lissy 'the truth' about herself and her life - and it these stories that form the basis of the novel, introducing characters, revealing their experiences, and so on. The result is a complicated, touching, honest, delightful depiction of life, love, happiness, relationships, deception and so on. It's a novel that's definitely about people rather than events, and Julianna Baggott is definitely an author to watch. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, and enjoyed it so much that I hope others will check it out as well.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Not Just For Girls
20 Feb 2001
Format:Hardcover
After my wife devoured the book, I picked it up and was instantly hooked! Baggott perfectly captures and describes an era of time that I instantly identified. The humor, which at times is both subtle and obvious, coupled with a diverse cast of characters, makes the reading of Girl Talk an excellent choice for all.
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