Ted Grayson isn't mad at the world, just the young woman fussing with his hair before a broadcast, but he was already in a mood. After decades as America's anchorman, he's not social media-savvy and couldn't foresee the fallout of his tirade being caught on video, then reposted. John Kenney's Talk to Me opens with a despondent Ted literally mid-air, with no plan to open his parachute.
A few chapters later, readers learn Ted's fate: after the disappointment of no word from his hostile daughter, Franny, for his 59th birthday; after the we-need-to-talk-I've-met-someone message from his lovely wife, Claire; after the New York Post photo snapped when he'd forgotten to zip up--he survives the skydive. For the most part, Ted's life, revealed in chapters leading to "the incident," doesn't inspire sympathy, but Kenney's (Truth in Advertising) dark humor evokes understanding. And Ted's comeuppance as "the feminist pariah" (among other slurs) is so complete that one can't resist hoping for redemption.
Seduced by fame, Ted had neglected his family. It seems Claire's earned an attentive lover and the right to imagine a settlement confrontation like one from "a Hugh Grant movie... with an Elvis Costello soundtrack." Franny, working for an infotainment site called scheisse ("no rules, just clicks and shocks") has rejected everything about her father, including his surname.
Before his unraveling, Ted muses on the 2017 culture that contributes to his downfall: "Sarcasm had replaced hope. Cruelty and judgment had replaced empathy." Fittingly, a surprise twist reveals that hope and empathy can prevail. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco