I didn’t expect to like this book. It’s a memoir. Not that I don’t like memoirs. It’s just that recently I’ve been reading lighter, escape-type novels and I prefer to stick with that. And besides… I didn’t even know this Sarah Paretsky (the author)! But the book, Writing in the Age of Silence, was recommended by a friend and it was short. I wouldn’t have to suffer for long.
Obviously, millions of other readers know Paretsky. She was recently named the 2011 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and is the best-selling author of a series of crime novels starring detective V I Warshawski. And I didn’t suffer at all; I enjoyed every word of Paretsky’s thoughtful reflections on her dysfunctional family and her rural Kansas upbringing, her literary and political growth, and the development of her female detective. Most importantly, she talks about how these things affected her as a writer and how she and other authors continue to struggle to find their voice. She writes “Every writer’s difficult journey is a movement from silence to speech. We must be intensely private and interior in order to find a voice and a vision—and we must bring our work to an outside world where the market, or public outrage, or even government censorship can destroy our voice.” She goes on, in the last chapter, to elaborate on each of these forces that work against the modern day writer.
In another chapter she talks of the American spirit of individualism and how the stereotypical P. I. was the embodiment of this trait. Paretsky credits authors Chandler, Daly, and Hammett for influencing her as she created Warshawski. V I Warshawski, operating in Paretsky’s beloved Chicago, is not only individualistic, she is a woman detective operating in the male-dominated world of crime fighting. There is no possible way that Paretsky’s feminism and some of her persona isn’t present in the DNA of Warshawski.
This is certainly good reading material for anyone who is an author, whether aspiring or accomplished. Warshawski fans, as well as fans of biographies and memoirs, and simply anyone who enjoys a soul-searching look into the times we Americans are living in, will appreciate this book. As for me, I’ve just downloaded Body Works, Paretsky’s latest crime novel, which the N Y Times has named one of the Top Mysteries of 2010.
Dr. Karen Boyle, Professor of English at Kent State University at East Liverpool will lead the discussion of Writing in the Age of Silence at the MUSE Group. The meeting is April 12th, in the Main Classroom building at 6:30 pm and all are welcome to attend.
