Talk to Me - by Anna Deavere Smith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Anna Deveare Smith's award-winning one-woman shows were borne of her uniquely brilliant ability to listen. In Talk to Me she applies her rare talent to the language of political power in America.

Believing that character and language are inextricably bound, Smith sets out to discern the essence of America by listening to its people and trying to capture its politics. To that end she travels to some of America's most conspicuous places, like the presidential conventions of 1996, and some of its darkest corners, like a women's prison in Maryland. And along the way she interviews everyone from janitors to murderers to Bill Clinton himself. Memoir, social commentary, meditation on language, this book is as vastly ambitious as it is compellingly unique.

Review Quotes

"What Smith does with these interviews shows a kind of brilliance that goes straight to the heart."
--Los Angeles Times

"Succeeds in teaching one crucial lesson: those who truly listen, truly hear."
--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] fascinating, hall-of-mirrors meditation."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] book as fascinating for its content as it is beautiful for its poetic form."
--Denver Rocky Mountain News

"[This book] succeeds in teaching one crucial lesson: those who truly listen, truly hear."
--The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Playwright, actress, teacher, Anna Deavere Smith is most of all a listener. For years she has created unique art by listening more closely than others, listening with the belief that language and character are inextricably bound. In Talk to Me she listens in search of America.

Smith's goal is to discern the American character and to capture its politics. To that end she travels everywhere from the site of recent church burnings in rural Alabama to the presidential conventions of 1996, from the segregated Baltimore of her childhood to the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. And along the way she interviews everyone from Studs Terkel to President Bill Clinton himself. The result is a defiantly brilliant book that honors no rules.