Customer Reviews

The Year of Silence (Contemporary American Fiction)

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

 

 

I had the pleasure of studying under Madison Smartt Bell at the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop in the late 1980s, and THE YEAR OF SILENCE was the only impression I'd had of him. But what an impression! Set in various parts of Manhattan and my home town of Brooklyn, I was in awe of this writer's command of his craft and his knowledge of the city. I figured he's spent decades honing his talents. When I arrived at the workshop, I discovered that Bell was NOT from New York City and that he was younger than me. Naturally, I wanted to strangle him.

Anyway, THE YEAR OF SILENCE is a wise and sympathetic novel that prompted as many re-readings as there are narrators. Every voice is honest (even the con artist/breaking-and-entering specialist) and, above all, appealing in their own ways. Structurally, the multiple points of view is very effective, especially when you consider the book is set in the city where a person can touch so many lives (and is set in the city where everyone thinks their point of view is so important). However, the fact is that the death of the protagonist, Marian, did affect so many people who, on the surface, seem so disaffected. Marian, herself, is given a chance to speak before her untimely passing. In its way, the novel is a sort of AS I LAY DYING set in 1980s New York City.

The strength of THE YEAR OF SILENCE, and I'll repeat this, is the profound appeal, the extreme humanity, of its narrators. I almost wish each one had his or her own novel. My favorite is an invalided old woman whose grandson races her through the NYU area in her wheelchair. Although she had only known Marian in passing, the news of her death prompts one of the most elegant but simple reveries on life, death and old age. THE YEAR OF SILENCE captures New Yorkers in a way that has rarely been done before. Of course, it was written by an out-of-towner.

This book is about how the suicide of a woman named Marian affects those who knew her. All these people have problems. They hate their jobs. They hate their lives. Some hate both. An example of this is a cop more interested in winning a crime pool than really helping people. We don't really get to know the people in these stories including Marian, which would seem to me to be essential. She has bad luck with men, had a couple of abortions and got into drugs. We really don't find out much more about her than that. The only character we really get to know is the dwarf panhandler/pickpocket named Jocko. His story is well fleshed out and so is he. We get a sense of who he is and how he sees the world. I would have liked to read more about him. If not for the story about him reading this book would be a complete waste of time. I found this book's title to be very appropriate since the characters don't have much of a voice. I would give this one and a half stars if I could, but since I can't it has to settle for one.