NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS by Patricia Lockwood

This book might be perfect for readers with a short attention span, but the format turned me off.  The first half of the book is a series of social media witticisms, and, if that’s what I wanted to read, then I would read witticisms on social media.  Granted, the author’s witticisms are way funnier and thought-provoking than those I might find on the internet, but this book was just not cohesive enough for me.  The first-person unnamed narrator is a woman who posts pointed ruminations on “the portal” and travels the world for speaking engagements.  The subject of these speeches was a mystery to me, but I assumed that she was sharing with her audience more comic observations about social media and that people were willing to pay to hear this stuff.  The second half of the book deals with a real-life tragedy that starkly contrasts with the first half’s twitter posts, if that’s what they are.  I foolishly hoped that the format of the novel would become more traditional in the second half, but no such luck, and I felt like the format diluted the content.  I recognize that the author has an important message to deliver about what really matters versus the barrage of trivialities that we consume on the internet.  I just wish that she had stated her case without making me read it as a series of twitter-like snippets.