Talk Talk

by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Book Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Tortilla Curtain comes "a tense thriller" (San Francisco) about a woman in desperate pursuit of the man who has stolen her identity.

"Boyle takes the reader on a wild ride. . . . No one writes better about the wages of American sin."--The New York Times Book Review

There's more than one way to take a life . . .

It was not...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143112155
• ISBN13: 9780143112150
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

He Stole Her Identity and She Wants it Back

Dana Halter is a thirty-three-year-old deaf woman, who teaches deaf children. She has sort of a geek boyfriend named Bridger Martin who does special effects for movies. One day she's late for a dental appointment and she runs a stop sign. Unfortunately she's caught at it and the officer who stops her, after checking her ID, cuffs her and takes her to jail. It seems someone has stolen her identity and is wanted for passing bad paper, auto theft and even grand theft auto. Flash to William Peck Wilson who has a shop-a-holic Russian girl friend named Natalia, who is so darned sexy one can't describe it. Natalia and her daughter live with Peck and he supports them and Natalia's habit by stealing identities. Currently he's going by Dr. Dana Halter and living the life of Riley in a condo by the ocean in Marin County. Back to Dana. When she gets out of jail she finds the police don't seem to be all that interested in finding the person or persons who have caused her such grief. So she and Bridger decided to track down the culprit themselves. And there you have the ingredients of a story that kept me reading through a balmy weekend. T.C. Boyle knows his characters, those quirky, wonderful people who walk through the pages of his book. He knows how to draw you in, if you don't believe me, pick up this book, read the first page. I dare you to put it down after you do.

Kafkaesque Tale about Identity Theft

First of all, let me say that I am a huge fan of T.C. Boyle. This book did not disappoint, and was a real page-turner to boot. Summary, no spoilers: Dana Halter is a 33 year old deaf woman who teaches at a school for the deaf. One day, on her way to a dental appointment, Dana drives through a stop sign. She is stopped by the police, and she finds out that the officer thinks she has warrants out for her arrest. She is a victim of identity theft. The man who stole her identity is named Peck Wilson, and he is a violent con man who has been living high off the hog off of Dana and a few others. The book follows Dana and her boyfriend Bridger Martin, as they attempt to find Peck Wilson, both to reestablish Dana's good name and make sure this doesn't happen again - and also to seek revenge on him for the havoc and misery he has caused. This is real page turner, and I can tell you because I was a criminal attorney that the arrest/jail/courtoom scenes described in the beginning of the book are spot on. Getting arrested on a Friday is a Bad Thing - especially if it's all been a terrible mistake. This book was quick paced and lives up to Boyle's high standards. It is also a very frightening book - because we all realize how we could end up like Dana Halter, and have our own lives turned upside down because of the greed and avarice of someone who would steal our identity. And the book shows us how easily that can be done. Frightening. Highly recommended.

Consuming Identities

Its finally happened. Even our identities have become products to be sold or stolen for profit. In T.C. Boyle's terrific "Talk Talk" deaf Dana Halter and her boyfriend chase the identity theft, Wilson Peck, across the U.S. Her extreme reaction is based on a degrading night spent in jail because of the crimes committed in her name. I like that her chase is motivated by revenge and justice and not common sense. Ostensibly, she and her boyfriend expect that when they identify their perpetrator, they will call the police who will immediately respond by arresting him. Hard to believe and when they do spot him, they get in his face to what ends its hard to discern. I finished "Talk Talk" several days ago and I've remained under its spell. Boyle has created in Dana Halter a fierce, angry and often unlikeable deaf woman. More impressive is that Boyle has produced a full and often sympathetic portrait of a lonely and sad identity thief. Most impressive is that he makes the snarling, animalistic need of these characters palpable and visceral. When I stepped away from the book, I realize that the tone is in a sense misplaced. The magnitude of the horror is really rather slight and yet Boyle made this reader feel the threat, the rank body order, the sweaty sheen of desperation, the compulsion beyond all reason of these character to claim or reclaim what they perceive as their identity at any cost. The book never lingers on the issue of identity beyond its tangible qualities; social security and credit card numbers and profiles. I don't think that's a fault. We know that beneath the surface of this story lurks that big question. Its a question so big that even this story about the theft of tangible identity reveberates with questions about what our intangible identity really means to us and why we cling so desperately to it.

Another Great Book By a Great Writer

I've never read a book of Boyle's that I didn't like, but I suppose I've liked some more than others. This one is just hard to resist - an absorbing plot, interesting characters, and intelligent writing all in one place. What's not to love? Other reviewers have given you the general idea of the story - deaf woman goes in search of the man who stole her identity. Frankly, when I read the summaries of this book I wasn't particularly interested. However, I had just finished reading Tooth and Claw and had to have another "Boyle fix," so I bought Talk Talk. I read it straight through, beginning to end, in just about one sitting. Do yourself a favor this summer and read Talk Talk!

Another literate, thoughtful page-turner

With TALK TALK, his eleventh novel, T.C. Boyle has constructed another literate, thoughtful page-turner. The protagonist is Dana Halter, an independent, feisty, attractive woman in her early 30s. She teaches school, enjoys an occasional evening out at loud nightclubs, and has a younger boyfriend named Bridger Martin who adores her. In short, she's a normal, responsible young woman who also happens to be profoundly deaf. The problem is that apparently there's another Dana Halter out there, as she discovers when she's arrested after running a stop sign. This other Dana Halter passes bad checks in multiple states with her driver's license number, her social security number. And this Dana Halter has skipped bail twice. So despite Bridger's best efforts, Dana spends a humiliating, uncomfortable weekend in the San Roque county jail. "Dana Halter" is only one of the identities that the antagonist Peck Wilson has collected in the years since he was released from prison in New York State. As the book opens, Peck lives as Dr. Dana Halter in a Marin County waterfront condo furnished with nothing but the best for his kitchen (he's a very gourmet sociopath) and his bed (a Russian beauty named Natalia.) He is an old hand at identity theft and manages them carefully, wringing them almost dry before moving on and covering his tracks. When the real Dana is finally released from jail, she finds that the authorities aren't overly concerned with prosecuting this so-called victimless crime. It's up to her and Bridger to retrieve her impounded car and field phone calls from irate creditors. But Bridger acquires the thief's cell phone number from one such creditor and makes contact. Peck, wanting to cut his losses, informs the wary Natalia that his name is not Dana after all, and trades in her BMW Z4 on a wine-colored Mercedes S500 for their escape from town. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse, Jetta vs. Mercedes chase across the continent that culminates in a final showdown of sorts at a train station in Peck's hometown of Peterskill, New York. The plot packs a wallop matched by Boyle's inventive language and multi-faceted, believable characters. Dana's "handicap" has made her tough and stubborn; we see the tremendous effort it takes to make herself understood, and how frustrated she gets when she can't. Bridger has learned to sign and she reads lips, but under the fatigue and uncertainty they face, sometimes communication between them breaks down. The thief, Peck, wears his sense of entitlement as naturally and easily as his Italian suits, and in the long stretches of narrative from his point of view, we are equally fascinated and repulsed by his absolute disregard for anyone but himself. Natalia, who he thinks he loves, is really just another fine possession, more complicated than a car perhaps, but manageable by charming lies or threatening fury. T.C. Boyle is in fine fettle here. He can linger on a character's momentary interior state for a page and a half without bo