A reviewer from Kirkus Reviews calls the story “superb,” and R. Z. Sheppard, in a review for magazine, specifically praises the character Beale: “In ‘Someone to Talk To,’ a journalist who won’t stop gabbing about himself long enough to ask a question is worthy of Evelyn Waugh.” Gail Caldwell of the Boston Globe , however,…
Tag: Deborah Eisenberg
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Setting
Guatemala Though other Central American governments have mounted violent counterinsurgency campaigns, the description of the Indians’ persecution in “Someone to Talk To” bears a strong resemblance to the history of Guatemala in the 1980s. Though the Guatemalan army had used death squads to quash insurgents since the 1960s, the slaughter of political dissidents and their…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Literary Devices
Point of View “Someone to Talk To” is written in the third person limited omniscient; however, because the reader has access to only Aaron Shapiro’s thoughts and emotions, and no one else’s, the effect is similar to that of a first-person narrative. This is important, because otherwise readers would not experience the psychological upheaval that…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Themes
Loneliness and the Need to Be Heard The main character of “Someone to Talk To,” Aaron Shapiro, is coping with the departure of his live-in girlfriend of six years. In addition, he is far from home, in an unfamiliar country torn by years of civil war. As the story progresses and the reader learns more…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Characters
Beale Later that evening, Shapiro performs the concerto at the acoustically challenged hall. When he had performed the piece seventeen years earlier, his performance was described as “ affirming .” Now, in this hall, though he does his best, “it had simply sat over them all—a great, indestructible, affirming block of suet.” Outside the hall…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Summary
The story begins as Caroline, Aaron Shapiro’s live-in girlfriend of six years, is leaving him for another man (identified only as “Jim”). She leaves him with both a broken heart and her cat, ironically named Lady Chatterley (“Jim, evidently, was allergic”). As she walks out the door, she tells Aaron, “I’ll always care about you,…