Speak to Me

This book details the life of Susan, Kurt, and Kurt’s phone named Wendy. The novel begins when an intimate moment is interrupted by the beeping of Wendy. In fact Wendy is so prolific in their relationship Susan even has an album entitled “Kurt on his phone in Beautiful Places.” This is a humorous look at society’s current obsession with mobile phones, but actually has a really serious point to make about addictions to technology.
The first time Kurt ever expresses emotions to Susan, is via text, when he tells her that he loves her. And he seems unable to communicate in any meaningful way without Wendy. As their marriage begins to fall apart, Susan becomes equally obsessed with a briefcase, and its contents, that has gone missing. It knaws away at her, until she becomes convinced that Kurt has taken it and starts obsessing over its contents. She returns to her old haunts, trespassing in her old house, in an attempt to hang onto the past she believes she has lost.
Once we learn of the contents of the case, we start to really feel for Susan. I don’t want to spoil the plot too much, but it does become apparent that the thing she now detests ie. Wendy, could have changed the direction of her entire life.
There is no happy ever after in this book. This is not a rosy cheeked, picnics by the river, vows of undying love, type of relationship love story. This is realistically messy and depressingly relatable. This is about the paths that could have been created if a split second decision had been different.
I hate romance books, but I loved this. This is not your everyday love story. This is raw and traumatic. I NEVER cry at books, but this one really touched me, and made me sob. I hate to make the obvious pun, but this one really did ‘speak to me.’ The line, “sometimes I see vividly the life that might have been,” really resonated with me, and this is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

I really enjoyed reading Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza and its portrayal of a woman whose marriage is unravelling so she looks back to rekindle a past relationship.

Susan and Kurt and their children move to an executive home on a new estate and at the same time their marriage begins to unravel, as Kurt becomes increasingly distant, obsessed with his phone and buried in his work. As their children also grow older and more distant, leaving Susan increasingly alone, she in turn becomes obsessed with her past and in particular a leather case containing letters from a former boyfriend which has gone missing in the move. The novel examines loneliness, obsession, and alienation, and how lives once happy and well-lived can descend into chaos and delusion.