Customer Reviews

Writing in an Age of Silence

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to say I enjoyed this book, because it's not about fun. I can't even recall a touch of humor. The author makes no effort to engage her audience, beyond high quality writing and an emotional intensity that rises from each page.

Paretsky's title covers both her childhood background and her reaction to living in George Bush's America.

As a child, Paretsky received nothing but discouragement and put-downs from her parents and siblings. Yet she and her brothers all turned out not just well, but outstandingly. All have graduate degrees (Paretsky herself has a PhD in American history) and have done well. It would be interesting to ask a family therapist where this resilience came from.

Mystery fans will enjoy learning how Paretsky's life influenced the V. I. Warshawski series. Paretsky became influenced by classic detective writers while she was supposed to be studying for her American history degree. She deliberately created a female version of the hard boiled detective, drawing on settings she knew and real people in her own life.

Some reviewers didn't care for Paretsky's attack on contemporary America, but I got the feeling she was angry and determined to use the platform she holds as a prominent writer. She's always been a force for good (as were her parents and at least one grandparent).

Paretsky writes a great deal about the Patriot Act - a horrifying piece of legislation that apparently allows police to search and seize property - and people - without a warrant.

This discussion alone makes Paretsky's book would be worth reading. It's terrifying to read about a woman who (according to Paretsky) was arrested because her social security card listed her married name and her passport her maiden name (or vice versa).

Paretsky's discussion of women writers was an eye-opener for me: I had no idea that women writers had to fight for reviews and publication. Today we take for granted the best-sellers by Marcia Muller, J. A. Jance, Sue Grafton and Paretsky herself. I wish she had written more about founding Sisters in Crime and about her relationship with some other writers.

I disagreed only when Paretsky claims (p. 76) that prominent women - Condoleeza Rice, Carly Fiorina, Katie Couric - are thin because they want to "disappear." In fact, it is hard for a woman to achieve prominence unless she is attractive. Being attractive means being slim, even thin. Madeleine Albright was exceptional. But media like to feature attractive women, making them even more prominent. Would Carly Fiorina have gotten as far as she did if she were heavier and less attractive? We will never know.

Paretsky has given us some rare insights into the way she experiences life, past and present. She expresses the helplessness and frustration so many Americans feel - a sense of returning to McCarthyism and worse. The last few pages are lyrical and strong without slipping into sentiment.

It's not a comfortable read, but the book will be hard to forget, well written and not nearly long enough. It's hard to say I enjoyed this book, because it's not about fun. I can't even recall a touch of humor. The author makes no effort to engage her audience, beyond high quality writing and an emotional intensity that rises from each page.

It's rare that I'm impressed sufficiently by a book to contact the author, but "Writing in an Age of Silence" is such a book. As a Chicago native who lived in Kansas for many years, I was awed by Paretsky's ability to finely convey both areas so well, positioning both within her own formative experiences. Fans of V.I. Warshawski know that Paretsky has a wickedly sharp, funny pen, but here she turns that talent inward.

One caveat: those not familiar with Paretsy's other work might experience "Writing in an Age of Silence" differently, of course. In that case, I encourage you to read more of her work so that you can get a better sense of her voice. She's a remarkable writer, regardless of genre.

Sara Paretsky writes not only of her life but of the world that dramatically affects women and men .One need not have read Paretsky's work to appreciate the clearly feminist views she expresses. But it is not fair to simply label her with one ideology.She is a woman who has cared deeply all her life for the disenfranchised; those disenfranchised by race,gender,religion.

I felt as if I were reading the work of my doppelganger;especially the kind of ideas I shared with my students in a single-sex school. This book is no place to find the "warm,fluffy" philosophy that women or African-Americans have maintained whatever progress the world attributes to the women's movement or the Civil Rights Act.Rather Paretsky gives factual information to the contrary.

This book is wonderfully,lucidly written. It should be read not only by those who already share her beliefs;but,more importantly by those who are brave enough to challenge their comfort zones.

Fascinating information on what's going on today in the USA! Well written! A courageous book in this age of information control. A must read!

There are many things I didn't know about one of my favorite mystery writers, Sara Paretsky. She is nearly the same age as I; her writing began as a way to find her voice in a family beset by violence; she has four brothers; her mother was a librarian. Some of these facts are strikingly similar to my own experiences, making the reading of this memoir, for me, like sitting down with a friend from long ago.

Paretsky's early years were influenced by the rise of feminism. She was told that if she wanted to go to college, she would have to attend the university where her father taught in the town where the family lived.

She vowed to spend her summers away from home. In 1966, she went to do community service work on the South Side of Chicago. Anyone who has read her V.I. Warshawsky novels will now see where and how the best-selling series began. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was organizing in Chicago during that same summer, and Paretsky was "on the periphery of his great work." The civil rights movement and Second Wave Feminism deeply influenced Paretsky's life as well as her writing.

She chose to invent a female private eye radically different from a previous American icon of the genre, Sam Spade. Unlike this male "loner," Warshawsky is intimately involved with her community.

In 2002, Paretsky began speaking to library associations on the curtailing of civil liberties by the Patriot Act. She delivered her lecture, "Truth, Lies and Duct Tape," the night before the U.S. attacked Iraq, at the Toledo, Ohio public library. She had been asked by the library not to deliver the controversial talk because people were turning in their tickets. "My upbringing has made me particularly vulnerable to angry criticism," she writes (and so has mine), "to the implied fear of being a bad daughter, not submissive enough...I gave this talk, but my knees were shaking so badly I had to grip the podium throughout." The five hundred people in the audience gave her an ovation.

As a librarian, writer and feminist, this memoir moved me and made me feel as though I had found a kindred spirit and sister. If you have any interest in American history in the past fifty years and in the writing life as it pertains to women, do yourself a favor: read this book.

by Linda Wisniewski
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

If You are a Paretsky fan, a mystery fan or simply a fan of books about writers and writing, then you will find something to like about WRITING IN AN AGE OF SILENCE. Notice I didn't say "you'll like WRITING. . ." There's a good reason why.

The essays contained in this volume fall into two categories: 1.) biographical/writing-related; 2.) current events. The essays that fall into category #1 are wonderful. They give the reader a window into Paretsky's life, career and thought-process as a writer. The ones detailing how and why she first went to Chicago and spent a summer between college semesters volunteering at a day camp for underprivileged children are especially insightful. These alone (and they only comprise about half of the book) are worth the cover price.

The remainder of the book consists of what amount to opinion pieces on various current events, most notably the Iraq War. Of course, while these are very worthy topics, Paretsky basically rehashes everything you've already heard about them in the daily media. She says nothing that hasn't already been said before.

If you're a Paretsky completist or able to satisfy yourself with half a book, then WRITING IN AN AGE OF SILENCE is for you. The casual (and frugal) fan is advised to check this one out of the public library---or wait until the author decides to write a straight-up memoir. She's done half of a damn fine one already.

A definite "Thumbs Up". Although not completely agreeing with all of the author's points, most are dead on. This should be required reading for all members of the U.S. Congress. This book does make one wonder about what is happening to our country. Please note that this book was published by an English company probably in England and not one based in the U.S. If you read the book you should understand why.

This serious, non-fiction book is a must read for any person seeking enlightenment. She tells it like it is.

Sara Paretsky's Writing in an Age of Silence is a touching and well-written memoir. Paretsky points to her early home life as well as books and authors as influences for her future as a writer. She explains how working on the south side of Chicago during the Civil Rights movement influenced the creation of her series character, VI Warshawski. She exposes the prejudice against women writers that lead to the creation of Sisters in Crime and the continuing struggle women face for equality. She discuesses the erosion of American's rights. Readers may not always agree with Paretsky's point of view on the issues, but she presents her arguments in a well written way that's sure to provoke discussion. Paretsky ties in how each part of her life has affected her writing career. Writing in an Age of Silence isn't a writing guide. Paretsky reminds readers that writers are influenced by the lives they lead, the things they read, and the issues that matter to them.

I'm not much of a mystery fan, but I do love memoirs, and I am political. Paretsky's observations about the Patriot Act and FISA and other atrocities of the so-called War on Terror are actually conservative in the best sense of the word. These observations, made initially to those guardians of public trust, librarians, come at the conclusion of this book.

I found the first part an interesting study in what produces an activist with strong opinions. Paretsky grew up with four brothers and a father who favored them. She wasn't even encouraged to go to college, although the family borrowed money for the boys' education. She was justly indignant and worked in the civil rights movement of the sixties and became an ardent feminist while in graduate school.

She eventually got a doctorate in U.S. history, but the mystery writing was harder, and that's really the crux of this memoir. What enables a person to write, to voice unspeakable concerns, whether they are personal or in the public sphere? Paretsky has struggled and she speaks out whether about the role of women in history or the neglect of women mystery writers (she was a founder of Sisters in Crime) or of our First Amendment rights.

I going to take a look at some of her mysteries now, because I know I won't be assaulted by a lot of sexist and racist presumptions. And I'm going to send this memoir to a social worker I know on the South Side of Chicago.