Girl Talk [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Julianna Baggott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

Lissy Jablonski was fifteen during the summer of 1985. That was the summer her father, a soft-spoken, seemingly passionless gynecologist, up and left her mother for a redheaded bank teller. The same summer Lissy and her mother disappeared from their quiet New Hampshire lives to have an adventure of their own amid a cast of unlikely characters, including a Valium-addicted ex-debutante and a suspected mobster. The summer the reliably comforting "girl talks" with her mother began to reveal startling secrets. It was also the summer that Lissy's mother would ever after refer to as "the summer that never happened."

Now an almost-thirty-years-old advertising executive in Manhattan, faced with her father's imminent death and newly pregnant by her married ex-lover, an unmoored Lissy finds herself looking back across the years. Contending with her affections for an old boyfriend and his doomed marriage to a Korean stripper named Kitty Hawk, as well as the tangible legacies of that unmentionable summer with her mother, she realizes that she has become more like her mother than she ever could have imagined.

In her debut novel, acclaimed short-story writer and poet Julianna Baggott has woven a precise, smartly comic, and compassionate tale of discovery and desire. With a lyrical sensibility, Baggott reminds us -- through the witty and unsparingly realistic voice of her narrator, Lissy -- of the pleasures and sorrows that can come from the most unreasonable realities of the heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poet and short story writer Baggott's debut novel is a touching coming-of-age story that delivers more depth than its title might imply. A baby boomer doctor's wife in New Hampshire takes her 15-year-old daughter on a voyage of discovery, then later denies the secrets revealed by calling it "the summer that never happened." Although accustomed to being roused from sleep for her mother's late night "girl talks," Lissy Jablonski is unprepared for what her mother, Dotty, has in mind one summer night in 1985. Lissy's gynecologist father has run off with a young bank teller. When it becomes evident that her husband is not going to return, Dotty counsels Lissy, "Don't cry... he's not your real father," and Lissy begins to discover her mother's tangled past. The two embark on a road trip to Dotty's hometown of Bayonne, N.J., where Lissy learns about her one-eyed, mythically endowed biological father, Anthony Pantuliano; the grandmother she thought was dead; and the choices her mother made that shaped both their lives. On the way to Bayonne, Lissy loses her virginity to Church Fiske, the son of her mother's best friend, wealthy ex-debutante Juniper Fiske. Looking back in 1999 as a 30-year-old, newly pregnant but unmarried advertising exec, Lissy realizes that she is repeating the patterns of her mother's life, as Church asks the same question of Lissy that Anthony asked of Dotty. Baggott's multilayered, psychological tale is told with a deceptively light tone, in scenes shifting from past to present. (Feb. 13) Forecast: Gen-X women and their mothers should find this novel absorbing, despite the occasionally awkwardness of the dual narrative. Appealingly quirky characters will charm readers who remember the '80s and could spark interest for informal book clubs. A 10-city nationwide author tour will help sales; foreign rights have been sold in six countries.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Baggott does well in setting the tone and atmosphere of coming-of-age in 1980s American society. Divorce, Pac-man, neon colors, and teased hair reign. Fifteen-year-old Lissy Jablonski spends the summer listening to her mother's stories of childhood and life before marriage as they both wait for Lissy's father to return home from his affair with a younger woman. As the 30-year-old Lissy looks back on that summer, she begins to piece together the power of mother-daughter relationships and discovers what she can offer her unborn child. Lissy finds herself making the same mistakes as her mother and knows that her daughter may follow in her footsteps. As much as this story is touching, Baggott's supporting characters succeed in making it funny and entertaining, as well. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atria; First Edition edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743400828
• ISBN-13: 978-0743400824
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,017,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author, Julianna Baggott -- who also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher (The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted) and N.E. Bode (The Anybodies) -- has published 17 books, including novels for adults, younger readers, and collections of poetry. Her latest novel, PURE, is the first of a trilogy; film rights have sold to Fox2000 -- www.pure-book.com. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Best American Poetry, Best Creative Nonfiction, Real Simple, on NPR.org, as well as read on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "Here and Now." Her novels have been book-pick selections by People Magazine's summer reading, Washington Post book-of-the-week, a Booksense selection, a Boston Herald Book Club selection, and a Kirkus Best Books of the Year list. Her novels have been published in over 50 overseas editions. She's a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University and the founder of the nonprofit Kids in Need - Books in Deed. For more, visit www.juliannabaggott.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a fun book!, February 5, 2001

By 

Gretchen Laskas "Author" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl Talk (Hardcover)

GIRL TALK is one of those novel that starts out being about one woman -- one woman with a BIG problem that is only going to get bigger -- and ends up being about all women. About the world in which women live, the secrets they keep, the fights they choose and the ones they pass. Their mothers, their friends, their lovers and their ghosts. The ending will remind you that Baggott is a poet, as well as fiction writer. You will not be disappointed.

A wonderful addition to writers who came of age after the Vietnam War!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well written, wonderful book, March 4, 2001

By 

E. M. Carey "LGW" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl Talk (Hardcover)

Although I didn't know what to expect from Girl Talk, it was not such a touching, honest portrayal of a relationship between a mother and daughter. Our heroine, now a single advertising executive living in Manhattan, looks back on a rather bizarre summer she spent with her mother, tracing events that took place then and thinking about the effects they have had on her present life. A complicated, somewhat strange woman, Lissy's mother used this summer to tell Lissy 'the truth' about herself and her life - and it these stories that form the basis of the novel, introducing characters, revealing their experiences, and so on. The result is a complicated, touching, honest, delightful depiction of life, love, happiness, relationships, deception and so on. It's a novel that's definitely about people rather than events, and Julianna Baggott is definitely an author to watch. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, and enjoyed it so much that I hope others will check it out as well.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just For Girls, February 19, 2001

By 

Richard Aljian (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl Talk (Hardcover)

After my wife devoured the book, I picked it up and was instantly hooked! Baggott perfectly captures and describes an era of time that I instantly identified. The humor, which at times is both subtle and obvious, coupled with a diverse cast of characters, makes the reading of Girl Talk an excellent choice for all.