Talking Cure is a timely and enticing excursion into the art of good conversation. Paula Marantz Cohen reveals how conversation connects us in ways that social media never can and explains why simply talking to each other freely and without guile may be the first step to curing what ails our troubled society.
Drawing on her lifelong immersion in literature and culture and her decades of experience as a teacher and critic, Cohen argues that we learn to converse in our families and then carry that knowledge into a broader world where we encounter diverse opinions and sensibilities. She discusses the role of food in encouraging conversation, the challenges of writing dialogue in fiction, the pros and cons of Zoom, the relationship of conversation to vaudeville acts, and the educational value of a good college seminar where students learn to talk about ideas. Cohen looks at some of the famous groups of writers and artists in history whose conversation fed their creativity, and details some of the habits that can result in bad conversation.
Blending the immediacy of a beautifully crafted memoir with the conviviality of an intimate gathering with friends, Talking Cure makes a persuasive case for the civilizing value of conversation and is essential reading for anyone interested in the chatter that fuels culture.
Awards and Recognition
- A Seminary Co-Op Notable Book of the Year
"[Cohen] makes the case that talking to others—sharing our stories—is how we learn things and sharpen our belief systems, how we piece together what it means to be funny or empathetic. Conversation can change our minds while sustaining our souls."—Hua Hsu, The New Yorker
"[Cohen] explores what makes for a vivacious meeting of minds. . . . She prizes conversation as an end in itself, its value residing not in the achievement of any particular outcome but in the pleasure of fluent verbal interchange."—Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic
"The chief value of this book is its abiding reminder of the pleasure of good talk. . . . It’s a lesson in how conversation can reveal our truest, fullest selves."—Danny Heitman, Wall Street Journal
"Talking Cure is a thought-provoking read. Cohen skillfully leads the reader through a lively and adventurous exploration of conversation in a wide variety of settings and situations."—Choice Reviews
"Like an agile museum guide, Cohen ushers us through a series of literary and historical exhibitions, not as a lecturer but as a conversation partner in prose. That is, Cohen artfully gives us a book that is itself a conversation about conversation in which the learned and the conversible are reunited. . . . Talking Cure is a beautifully expressed reminder of the joys, perils, and aspirations of conversation and its civilizing power."—Todd Breyfogle, Law & Liberty
"This charming and well-written book aptly describes itself as an invigorating exploration of the pleasures and social benefits of conversation, arguably more important than ever at a time of decline in conviviality and collegiality. . . A civilising and leisurely read."—David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer
"A civilising and leisurely read."—David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer
“From the salons in France and the Literary Club and Bloomsbury Group in London to Harlem and the Partisan Review crowd in New York, Paula Marantz Cohen takes us on an epic tour of gatherings of intellectuals, revealing the essential role of conversation in the making of great thinkers through history. Given the appalling state of public discourse and growing ideological rigidity on college campuses, Talking Cure makes a powerful case for cultivating spaces for genuine, unhindered conversations—our future depends on it.”—Amna Khalid, Carleton College
“Weaving together famous conversationalists and conversations with her own intimate life experience, Paula Marantz Cohen gives Talking Cure the same vibrancy, spontaneity, and open-endedness we relish in conversation. In her hands, the art of conversation becomes a metaphor for the art of living.”—Roosevelt Montás, author of Rescuing Socrates
“Paula Marantz Cohen has written a book so lucid and bright the reader wants to respond, to continue the conversation she begins.”—Richard Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
“We need to talk. We’ve all heard this uttered ominously, but Paula Marantz Cohen gives the need to talk renewed urgency, and ultimately joy. We should listen to Cohen, and respond in kind to her engagingly conversational study, whose ‘kinship is with Montaigne.’”—Scott Newstok, author of How to Think like Shakespeare
“Paula Marantz Cohen’s book, Talking Cure, is an intelligent, delightful, and refreshing addition to the analyses of our political fragmentation.”—Ashley Rogers Berner, Johns Hopkins University
“Paula Marantz Cohen’s book, Talking Cure, is a beautifully written study advocating a position that is both important and especially timely, the need for genuine conversation and respectful dialogue with those with whom we may disagree. Its own style is conversational, which fits the subject matter.”—Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University
“In Talking Cure, Paula Marantz Cohen wears her learning lightly. Her purpose is to demonstrate how good talk, rather than good fences, makes good neighbors, and her book couldn’t be more relevant for a time in which political, ethical, and emotional disturbances are roiling our country and tearing at the very fabric of civic (as well as civil) life.”—Willard Spiegelman, editor in chief, emeritus, Southwest Review
