2016 novel by Connie Willis
Crosstalk is a science fiction novel by Connie Willis, published in 2016. It is a romantic comedy that explores the intersection of telephones and telepathy. In a similar situation to "Bellwether" and "Passage", the main character, Briddey Flannigan, is part of a larger institution who gets caught up in series of escalating events. Additionally, "Crosstalk" like "Bellwether" and "Passage" feature themes of neuroscience, communication and technology.
Plot.
Bridget "Briddey" Flannigan, a middle manager in fictional tech-company CommSpan, is dating Trent Worth, one of the senior executives, while fending off nosy family and gossipy colleagues. The company is attempting to find a breakout competitor to the iPhone and other telecommunication products. Trent proposes that Briddey and he undergo a new procedure, an EED implant, which would allow the two of them to feel each other's emotions and take their relationship to the next level. Briddey consents.
Briddey arrives at work the day after, finding that the staff know her news already and have lots of unwanted advice to give. She takes refuge in her office, and finds a note from C.B. Schwarz, the company's disheveled technical genius, who seems to live like a hermit in the building's basement lab. She also gets text messages from her two sisters, Mary Clare and Kathleen, her Aunt Oona, and Mary Clare's 9 year-old daughter Maeve, who wants Briddey to stop her mother from ruining her life. Aunt Oona, who lives like a stereotypical Irish woman despite never having set foot in the old country, wants Briddey to dump Trent for a "foine Irish lad" such as Sean O'Reilly.
C.B. Schwarz tells Briddey that having the EED procedure is a very bad idea. With everybody drowning in communications she doesn't need more, and there could be "UIC's" or unintended consequences. He sends Briddey notes about surgeries that went disastrously wrong to discourage her.
Briddey initially believes that the procedure might not happen for over a year, but soon discovers that the schedule has been moved up and it will happen in days. She goes to great lengths to hide it from family and co-workers. After the operation she waits for "feelings" to start arriving from Trent, but instead hears a voice in her head. The voice belongs to C.B. Schwarz.
Briddey panics, convinced that C.B. is either in the room or has bugged it, leaves her bed and gets lost in a cold stairwell, is rescued by staff, and is visited by C.B., who calms her down and tells her to keep quiet about hearing his voice. Briddey spends the remainder of her stay dodging questions from the staff, the surgeon and Trent, while dealing with messages from her family, who think she is at her office. C.B. offers helpful, but mostly unwelcome suggestions via telepathy. At her discharge she is picked up by C.B., since Trent is in a Meeting.
C.B. tries to convince Briddey that the telepathy is real, and she needs to take him seriously. Back at the office, she starts hearing other voices, causing C.B. to urge her to work on some "defenses" and avoid crowds. He admits that he has been dealing with hearing voices since he was thirteen years old. However Briddey is suspicious of his motives, thinking he has romantic designs on her and is using some technical trickery to interfere with her relationship with Trent. She accepts an invitation to accompany Trent to the theater as the guest of the company CEO. At the theater she is overwhelmed by a flood of thoughts from the people around her. She collapses in the ladies room and contacts C.B. to help her. He arrives and gets her away, while texting plausible excuses to Trent on her phone. They go to the local university library where people reading produce a gentle background instead of a flood. There C.B. tells Briddey that he can teach her to shut out the thoughts of others, although he lives in isolation because of the effort involved.
Briddey learns to erect a perimeter around her mind and have an imaginary safe room to take refuge in. She even finds a way to tune in to other people's thoughts using an imaginary radio. This reveals to her that Trent's interest in her is part of a company project to use the EED's potential in a smartphone application.
Then Trent himself begins contacting her telepathically, as C.B. did. Briddey has to keep him at a distance while concealing her contacts with, and growing feelings for, C.B. Trent insists on involving the neurosurgeon, Dr. Verrick, but when Verrick returns from his globe-trotting visits to his celebrity clients, Briddey realizes that he may be involved in the scheme. With C.B.'s help, she must conceal the telepathy from Trent, Verrick and any others who may try to exploit her, C.B., and even her own family.
Reception.
Amal El-Mohtar at NPR Books argued that the book was "not a great showcase" for Connie Willis's oeuvre. However, Eric Brown of "The Guardian" was more laudatory, writing that "Willis tells a fast-paced tale with well-observed dialogue and some gentle humour."
Cultural references.
Through its various characters, the novel satirizes and parodies the influence of smartphones, streaming services and social media on people.
C.B. Schwarz keeps posters in his lab. One is of the movie star Hedy Lamarr, who also devised the frequency hopping technique to avoid interception of communications, which is a concept referred to in the novel. Another poster is for a fictional movie production of "Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith, a story about men who have had neural alterations to survive space travel.
References.
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