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A Book Of Silence (2009)

by Sara Maitland(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1847080421 (ISBN13: 9781847080424)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Granta Books (UK)

review 1: This is a phenomenal book. Maitland starts by asking what we really mean by silence (is it absence from all noise, in which case being alone in the forest, for example, can't be silent; or does it mean absence of human noise?) and goes on to look at what dangers silence can represent physically and psychologically, and the fear inherent in some kinds of silence ... and perhaps why some people distrust silence (ever know someone who just put the tv on for no reason? Or who just talked, all the time, never leaving even a moment's quiet?). All this is fascinating. But what I've come away with - because I am deeply interested both traditions - is an understanding of what it means to be silent for spiritual reasons, and what it means to seek silence for literary inspiration. Th... moree two are remarkably opposite. For this she contrasts the long tradition of Christian hermits who lived alone in the desert with the Romantic tradition of the author wandering alone in the silence and grandeur of the wild mountains. It was also wonderful reading about Maitland's own adventures seeking silence, and her recounting of others' experiences, which suggest there is a certain way the mind works when confronted with silence for long periods of time. She also looks at how we react differently to voluntary vs enforced silence. There's much too much in this book to try and discuss here - I'm only remembering the first few points that come to mind, but I loved every page of this book. Maitland finds, understands, and accepts something primal in herself - and all of us - that it takes real bravery to confront.
review 2: I found this book to be amazing because I found it to be so very interesting. It contained lessons and provided things to think about for me, but it is by no means a "self-help" or deliberately, or consciously preaching of teaching text. Fundamentally, it is one person's story of how she wanted to change how she lived and how she went about trying to achieve it. I know that I liked reading about this because there were resonances for me: what she wanted to do, how she went about exploring this, and her frame of reference that informed it. These things are, however, fairly specific to a certain type of experience - and in many ways very personal to the author - and so may alienate some people from getting much out of reading it. For me, at this moment, it was fascinating, inspirational and potentially quite influential. less

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