When you sit down at the Schutte table for a meal, you never know what you’ll be discussing. The weather, daily schedule, and quality of food are all par for the course, but talk rarely remains focused on such generalities. During one recent memorable meal, our family was dramatically divided on the subject of sneezing. Specifically: If you sneezed hard enough, would it propel you into a backflip? Contrast that with another discussion just a bit later, in which the topic of celibacy vs. marriage was hotly debated.
Rousing conversation certainly isn’t lacking in our home, be it amusing or serious, but it seems that much of the world struggles in this area. What does it mean to have a good conversation? What, for that matter, is a bad conversation? Paula Marantz Cohen attempts to answer these and other questions in her recent book Talking Cure, which combines anecdotes, philosophical discussions, Shakespeare, Henry James, and much more to get at the root of this crucial element of society.
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