Say Nothing
A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Ratings194
Average rating4.5
A GREAT read and, with access to the hindsight of many of its subjects, a very morally complex work of non-fiction. I learned so much about a topic I thought I knew well, and I have not been this engaged by a non-fiction work in a long time. I am grateful to the author for his painstaking work in bringing this level of detail to the story, detail that illuminated individual experiences, emotions, and made visceral the life and death stakes of living through every moment of this historic, bloody period.
That said, and I want to insert a SPOILER alert here:
SPOILER
The book's final act, which is the story of a University archive forced to reveal its secrets and uncover information for law enforcement, is very anti-climactic given the stakes of the main story, but the revelations it makes accessible do help re-frame the book's narrative. From a storytelling point of view, I wish there had been another way to end the tale. Yes, I understand these are the historical circumstances that lead to the revelations that the book expertly sets up, but the story of a mismanaged set of privacy guarantees at a University archive is not on the same level of dramatic and historical interest as the revelations it uncovered, and while I do not have a suggestion as to how better to end the book, I do admit to being slightly dissatisfied by this final section. Still, history deals its own cards, so it is hard to argue too much with the choice.
This is one of the most incredible nonfiction books I've read in a really long time. I could not stop talking to everyone about the things in this book. It's really remarkable meditation on the nature of radicalization and how people collectively deal with trauma and loss. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the Troubles of course, but also history and honestly just human nature!
Wow! All the stars!
“I saw an opportunity to tell a story about how people become radicalized in their uncompromising devotion to a cause, and about how individuals - and a whole society - make sense of political violence once they have passed through the crucible and finally have time to reflect.”