Small Talk

This is a book of elegies, meditations, and dreams. It's a book about connections and disruptions. It's a book about time, how quickly it slips through our fingers and how it never ends. In Jeffrey Schwartz's Small Talk, memories resurface cinematically: A driver flies through his sunroof to the past, the deceased reappear at a Florida bar or in a sister's spare room, two couples discover love in the same state 35 years apart. While the world in Small Talk is threatened with aging, mortal accidents, and violence, the transcendent moment is never far away. It might arise from a song, a long distance call, a shared pause in a busy ICU, or spotting angels on a department store escalator. In Small Talk, Schwartz confronts what is inexpressible and explores ways we create to connect, particularly during personal and historic tragedies.