Mira Jacob takes the idea of talking heads quite literally in her “memoir in conversation,” Good Talk. The work is mainly a series of conversations between Mira and a wide variety of people, but centers around her conversations with her son—Z—who has a number of questions about the world he’s growing up in, especially around the 2016 election. Jacob is Indian American, while her husband is Jewish, so Z is growing up as a mixed-race boy trying to understand his place in the world, while his parents are worried about the anti-immigrant and racist ideas and comments Donald Trump espouses during and after his campaign.
Jacob includes a number of other conversations, as well, that provide context for that ongoing conversation with her son, but also as they help her understand her identity and place in the world. She talks with her husband about their son, but also about her trying to navigate American society as a person of color, especially after 9/11. She speaks with her parents about how they raised her, their experiences in America, and, about her parents’ marriage, which is an arranged marriage. She shows the reader several conversations with her friends, as they all try to understand how to live in an America that supports Trump’s candidacy for president, forming a strong support group for one another in dealing with the systemic and inherent racism in American society. Near the end of the work, she includes more conversations with her husband Jed’s parents, as they’re planning to vote for Trump. Not only are those conversations increasingly difficult, but they lead to challenging discussions with Jed and Z.
Jacob includes a number of other conversations, as well, that provide context for that ongoing conversation with her son, but also as they help her understand her identity and place in the world. She talks with her husband about their son, but also about her trying to navigate American society as a person of color, especially after 9/11. She speaks with her parents about how they raised her, their experiences in America, and, about her parents’ marriage, which is an arranged marriage. She shows the reader several conversations with her friends, as they all try to understand how to live in an America that supports Trump’s candidacy for president, forming a strong support group for one another in dealing with the systemic and inherent racism in American society. Near the end of the work, she includes more conversations with her husband Jed’s parents, as they’re planning to vote for Trump. Not only are those conversations increasingly difficult, but they lead to challenging discussions with Jed and Z.
Rather than try to ignore the fact that her work is about conversations—which almost by its nature limits the development of any sort of plot or narrative—Jacob embraces and reinforces that approach through her art. She has drawn realistic pictures of each of the characters at various times in her life and pasted them on top of photographs that create the background. These combination makes it clear that she’s not recreating a scene as much as she is a conversation—it’s the words and ideas that matter more than where they took place or even people’s reactions at the time (the pictures she draws remain static throughout a scene). In some scenes, in fact, there are no pictures of who is talking, as she’ll put dialogue on top of an apartment building where she and Jed live, for example, without even using their drawn representations. It’s clear who’s speaking and who’s saying what, and the conversation is the focus.
She also lays out the memoir in non-chronological order, using the conversations with her son as the reference point. She’ll convey part of a conversation with Z, then jump back to how she felt after 9/11, then move forward to the election of President Obama, then back to Z, for example. Neither chronology nor character development obviously moves the plot forward. Instead, ideas around race, parenting, love, America, colorism, and identity serve as the core of her story. However, those ideas do develop through the work, which gives it more forward momentum than a strictly chronological story would have. Jacob’s ideas about parenting change, as her thinking about her parents change and as she becomes a parent herself. Not only is she raising her son in a different world (he’s born just before Obama’s election, but he’s asking questions in 2016) than the one she was raised in, she and Jed have different experiences with race and identity than her parents.
Though the conversations Jacob has with all of her friends and family are quite difficult, her title reminds us that these conversations are important. Not all the conversations go well, especially those with Jed’s parents near the end of the book, they need to happen. Rather than encouraging people to talk only with those they agree—such as her friends—Jacob reminds readers that good talk is when we are honest with one another about our differences and the struggles those differences create, but work to help each other understand why our differences matter. She wants to directly confront the problems in America rather than ignoring them; she wants to convey how difficult it is to live in a country that either minimizes one’s existence or exoticizes one into a thing, not a person. Good talk is conversation that can move toward healing, not by ignoring the wounds, but by bringing them into the open where they can begin to mend.
She also lays out the memoir in non-chronological order, using the conversations with her son as the reference point. She’ll convey part of a conversation with Z, then jump back to how she felt after 9/11, then move forward to the election of President Obama, then back to Z, for example. Neither chronology nor character development obviously moves the plot forward. Instead, ideas around race, parenting, love, America, colorism, and identity serve as the core of her story. However, those ideas do develop through the work, which gives it more forward momentum than a strictly chronological story would have. Jacob’s ideas about parenting change, as her thinking about her parents change and as she becomes a parent herself. Not only is she raising her son in a different world (he’s born just before Obama’s election, but he’s asking questions in 2016) than the one she was raised in, she and Jed have different experiences with race and identity than her parents.
Though the conversations Jacob has with all of her friends and family are quite difficult, her title reminds us that these conversations are important. Not all the conversations go well, especially those with Jed’s parents near the end of the book, they need to happen. Rather than encouraging people to talk only with those they agree—such as her friends—Jacob reminds readers that good talk is when we are honest with one another about our differences and the struggles those differences create, but work to help each other understand why our differences matter. She wants to directly confront the problems in America rather than ignoring them; she wants to convey how difficult it is to live in a country that either minimizes one’s existence or exoticizes one into a thing, not a person. Good talk is conversation that can move toward healing, not by ignoring the wounds, but by bringing them into the open where they can begin to mend.