A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation

Menaker, Daniel

ISBN 10: 0446540013 / ISBN 13: 9780446540018

Published by Twelve (edition Reprint), 2011

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0446540013-7-18

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation
• Publisher: Twelve (edition Reprint)
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446540013
• ISBN 13: 9780446540018
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Reprint.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

A stylish, funny and surprising guide to the art of conversation, from one of New York's foremost literary wits.

A GOOD TALK is an analysis of and guide to that most exclusively human of all activities-- conversation.

Drawing on over forty years of experience in American letters, Menaker pinpoints the factors that drive and enliven every good conversation: the vagaries (and joys) of subtext; the deeper structure and meaning of conversational flow; the subliminal signals that guide our disclosures and confessions; and the countless other hurdles we must clear along the way. Moving beyond self-help musings and "how to" advice, he has created a stylish, funny, and surprising book: a celebration of "the most excusively human of all activities."

In a time when conversation remains deeply important-- for building relationships, for relaxing, even for figuring out who we are-- and also increasingly imperiled (with Blackberries and texting increasingly in vogue), A GOOD TALK is a refreshing celebration of the subtle adventures of a good conversation.

About the Author

Daniel Menaker has been a part of America's life of letters for almost forty years. As a writer, he has met and talked to thousands of people about their work and their lives. He is widely read and well versed in psychological literature and practices and, as an editor at Random House, has had countless meetings and other exchanges with writers, agents, public figures, and ordinary people. His own writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Slate; he lives in New York with his wife and their two children.