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creadsagain's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
hrstarzec's review against another edition
3.0
This was the weakest of Jesse Ball's books for me so far, or maybe it just caught me at the wrong time, but it felt a lot more deliberate than the three others I've read of his, in an unappealing way. Interestingly, this is also the highest rated on Goodreads of the four I've read. I appreciated the prose style and overall structure, but it lacked an emotional core to latch onto, largely devoid of the distinct first-person narrators that have populated his other books due to the deliberately observational tone of it all. The narrator here is a fictional Jesse Ball, who we learn very little about except what is completely necessary to explain why he is researching a man who stopped speaking, and I don't think we got enough of that background for it to fully resonate.
Some of what I've loved about his other books is still here, but it didn't come together into total greatness.
Some of what I've loved about his other books is still here, but it didn't come together into total greatness.
manaledi's review against another edition
3.0
This book felt incomplete to me. The investigative format, with all its interviews, was very clever intellectually but didn't work as a story for me.
kurenzhi's review against another edition
3.75
It takes a bit to get passed the fact that this is either a.) a very poorly researched book about Japan, or b.) (and more probably) not Japan at all, but an imagined place that borrows real locations. The characters don't act Japanese, and even the romanizations don't make sense. The soul of this book, though, is clearly inspired by Abe Kobo (especially The Box Man and The Ruined Map), with some nods to Murakami as well. It's a good read, strange in the way that Ball is always strange, but with a different stylistic spin. The narrative and forms themselves are very successful, and this is worth reading if you enjoy Ball's other books.
masonanddixon's review against another edition
4.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdf6woYGShU
metafiction about how we use lies to create truths, worlds within language that serve as air bags for our mistakes, and perhaps how the self is indeed defined by a willingness to engage in these fictions. That the self is Heraclitus' river, and that silence is perhaps the most beguiling of all fictions.
metafiction about how we use lies to create truths, worlds within language that serve as air bags for our mistakes, and perhaps how the self is indeed defined by a willingness to engage in these fictions. That the self is Heraclitus' river, and that silence is perhaps the most beguiling of all fictions.
colpenbewley's review
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cameronkast456's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Death
markyin234's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
drewsof's review against another edition
4.0
Did you like Serial? Did you wish it was written by Haruki Murakami? Then this is the book for you.
It’s a straightforward journalistic accounting of a made-up strange missing persons case/trial in Japan – and Ball pulls off the actually-very-difficult trick of making all of this seem real and dare-I-say ‘flat’, as though it was proper journalism instead of fiction. As such, the piece is short and fast and might leave you feeling a little “oh, is that all?” by the end – but if you take it for what it is, you’ll enjoy it.
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/02/20/silence-once-begun/
It’s a straightforward journalistic accounting of a made-up strange missing persons case/trial in Japan – and Ball pulls off the actually-very-difficult trick of making all of this seem real and dare-I-say ‘flat’, as though it was proper journalism instead of fiction. As such, the piece is short and fast and might leave you feeling a little “oh, is that all?” by the end – but if you take it for what it is, you’ll enjoy it.
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/02/20/silence-once-begun/