Customer Reviews

Silence

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is very little I can say about this book that is positive. It was interesting seeing a book written in present tense--don't see many of those nowadays. It seems like the characters really had some great potential, and pretty much wasted it all by sleeping around. The dialogue and situations were highly unrealistic--nobody actually talks or acts like that. The book itself was so cookie-cutter, no personality, no humor, no nothing. Cold, boring narration. There were also moments when Harriet, the main character's mother, spoke in first person, and those didn't really work with the rest of the book.[...]

Rating: 1.5/5

Silence is the first novel I have read by Christopher Brookhouse. I was drawn to it because it is set in a small town in New Hampshire and as someone who vacations in New Hampshire about every 2 years, I am fascinated by it! It's such a different setting than the Chicago suburbs that I call home.

I admit that when I read the first chapter, I thought I had the entire plot line of the book figured out in my head. Oh, I was so smart, I was so sure of what would happen in the book. Until I read chapter 2! Brookhouse took a story that I felt could have been written in a formula-fiction sort of way and instead wove it into an interesting story.

The story follows Nicki and her adoptive mother Harriet and those that know them. Everyone, however, knows everyone else - the whole small town feeling. Nicki seems to have it all - good looks, good personality, and brains. And yet, after an attempted rape, she runs away from it all just a few days before high school graduation. The story then continues to follow everyone through the summer and into early fall.

I really enjoyed the story. I think I will read some of Brookhouse's 8 other novels in the future!

I had some difficulty sorting the change of voices at the beginning of this story, however, once into it some of the static seemed to calm down and each character developed they own rhythm. The subtleness of all of what Nicki Groh had to deal during her life seemed to come together and implode on her as the result of one simple act of violence.

Each of Mr. Brookhouse's characters seems to have their own set of unique quirks that are not at all obvious. He slowly draws them out and reveals them not only to the reader but to the other characters as well. Silence shows how destructive it can be to not only the person keeping the silence but to everyone they come in contact with along the way.

This is a slow thoughtful read that will leave you with plenty to think about after you have finished the last page.

A wonderful story about the connections or lack of connections between people-- mother to daughter, daughter to father, daughter to friends.... beautifully written.