2. Say Nothing

Say Nothing. Patrick Radden Keefe. 2018.

Just wow!  I was not expecting to get drawn into this book at all. This is a historical narrative written with a journalistic style.  When I first started, I was seriously skeptical as it began to set forth the backdrop for the story.  The book winds personal narratives of the conflict in Northern Ireland that are being amidst a culture that puts a very high value on saying nothing.  I am not a fan of war stories, so a story about murder and violence during a time of political conflict just doesn't much appeal to me.  But this book had so many other themes to choose from.

For example, the Catholic devotion to the idea of confession runs throughout.  What does it mean to hold this value while at the same time being a part of a movement that insists that you stay silent.  The fact that so many people involved in the conflict, so many people that committed murders, planted bombs, and engaged in other violence tactics gave detailed, recorded accounts of the things they did on the promise that these would not be released to the public until after their death speaks volumes to the need to confess.  When you think about the irony that these oral histories were then used only to prosecute the people who implicated themselves and never against those who stayed quiet kept coming back to me.  Confessions, accusations, guilt, and shame impacted how folks made sense of the things they did and saw others do.  

I was also struck by the ability of these communities to keep a secret.  Secrets relating to violence, but also the secrets related to the sexual abuse of the Catholic Church.  I was heartbroken at the passing comments about the abuse that was inflicted on children, especially by those orphaned by the violence.  While the author barely mentions this history, there was enough there to make me question what the actual impact on the people involved in this movement was because the mental health issues are palpable, even apart from what would be expected in the context of a life in the middle of violent conflict.  There is so much heartbreak here at so many levels. That so many people would look the other way when they knew child sex abuse was occurring in the church and in families is hard to read about, even though we all know the statistics.

The book does address trauma, though, pretty directly.  One story line about a participant in the violence who was so traumatized by what she experienced that she was repeatedly hospitalized was particularly compelling for me.  She would get drunk and call reporters to confess things she had done and implicate others who had been involved.  It is a small subplot, but quite powerful.

Yet another fascinating component of this story is the legal angle.  Why it is that the researchers at Boston College thought their promise would be enough to protect taped confessions is beyond my comprehension.  Seriously, all they had to do was hire a lawyer and have these confessions recorded in the context of the attorney-client privilege and none of the problems that followed would have happened.  It is a classic example of do-it-yourself lawyering going horribly wrong.

​I highly recommend this one.

Recommended by Joyce: Didn't follow your 2018 plan, so am not sure if this meets any unmentioned earlier criteria, but here goes: Say Nothing by Patrick Madden Keefe

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