Reviews for Harvey Sacks: Lectures on Conversation

The average rating for Harvey Sacks: Lectures on Conversation based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-02-22 00:00:00 D’ann Hanrahan This is a dauntingly massive collection of lectures which were never intended for publication, at least not in this form. Had not Harvey Sacks been killed in a car crash, I'm sure he could have worked many of his ideas into a groundbreaking work. As it is, we are left to reflect on what might have been. A more rigorous editing job would have made this volume more accessible to a wider audience but ,in fairness, this was not really the aim. As a body of analysis it goes far deeper than popular titles on 'how conversations work' . Sacks studied vast numbers of transcripts of phone dialogues, many relating to individuals who were depressed, suicidal or otherwise distraught. In one sense he was de-sensatiionalising the content and looking for connections that only come from such a rigorous and immersive study. This is certainly not a book to be read from beginning to end and I am a long way from completing it. In places I found it hard to get to grips with the linguistic complexity of his work. Nevertheless, I can recognize that this is a valuable reference book. I would not be surprised if Sacks' reputation continues grow as more academics quote from his studies.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-26 00:00:00 Dennis Bell good