{"product_id":"talk-a-blue-streak","title":"Talk A Blue Streak","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Lila Matsumoto\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; line-height: normal;\"\u003eMonitor Books\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; line-height: normal;\"\u003ePaperback, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; line-height: normal;\"\u003e104 pages\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; line-height: normal;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a girl moves to the USA. She goes to school, learns English, becomes an American citizen, and aspires to become a writer. But what is she to make of the extravagance, bombast, and damage she encounters in the new country’s language and customs? And what about the shrink-wrapped hunks of frozen meat, hurricanes, and the cat-eye marbles scattered on the road?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHugely pleasurable, in turns funny and dolorous, \u003cem\u003eTalk a Blue Streak \u003c\/em\u003eexamines how the act of writing declares a selfhood, but one that is always performative, looped, and curlicued.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Matsumoto’s intense focus on the particularity of the world of things makes her one of our great contemporary not-so-still life artists.’ — Lucy Mercer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A thought-provoking, soul-stirring read making the familiar feel new and the fleeting moments of life linger long after the final word.’ — Peter Gizzi\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eTalk a Blue Streak\u003c\/em\u003e is about girlhood, friendship and becoming yourself between registers and alongside someone else.’ — Jennifer Hodgson\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This elliptical, humorous text takes the uncanny and absurd virtu of a sun-faded, plastic, alien culture and spreads it out on the yard sale rug for all to see.’ — Graham Lambkin\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘There’s a “shambolic and candied jamboree” constantly streaming from the headphones: in Lila Matsumoto’s poems, it’s this road-tripping DIY “jangly lo-fi insurgency” that I love the most.’ — Tom Betteridge\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Reading these poems made me feel like I was having the best, funniest, most profound conversation with a friend. It made me feel like I love my funny friend, that this moment talking together is the distillation of all I could ask of life.’ — Nisha Ramayya\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59874003255630,"sku":null,"price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0837\/0680\/6606\/files\/lila.png?v=1781274616","url":"https:\/\/eastbristolbooks.co.uk\/products\/talk-a-blue-streak","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}