Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

51 reviews

katrinaburch's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

This book is one that should be on anyone's list who has an interest in the Troubles. It is well researched and well written. I was a teenager when the Good Friday Agreement was signed and while I knew a little at the point that was going on, I have since learned more through books like Edward Rutherfurd's Dublin and Morgan Llywellen's The Irish Century series. But those are both fiction, this is narrative non-fiction. Yes, the author does state that it doesn't begin to cover all that is needed to know about one of the most complex conflicts in the world, but it's a start.

I did have to knock it down a star for the author not using footnotes and ONLY using endnotes. As a historian, this drives me nuts. Endnotes are for your sources, footnotes are for extra information!

Overall, it's a very good book and should be read.

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sporadic_user's review against another edition

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4.0

A powerful book about awful acts of violence, in a seemingly unending cycle of retribution. Keefe masterfully conveys the inner worlds and fierce beliefs of a suprisingly small cast actors in the troubles, illustrating the many changes throughout it's beginnings, height and end.

For those normally turned off by acciuntings of history, Keefes writing style will be a welcome, gripping narrative rendition of events.

In particular, the inner motivations of the depicted are so well articulated that it can become hard hold on to an objective view oneself. Much like these real people, you can get caught up in their personal views and their cycles of violence. You can get insight into how the peace process could be reviled by the very people who wanted to stop fighting themselves. You might even find yourself condemning the very people who ended the conflict, only to realize that this exact thinking is what kept the conflict alive.

This book can be hard to read because of its subject matter, but it thoroughly demystifies the origins, staying power and legacy of the troubles.

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chomiczeq's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The book is fantastic, for me it is the perfect nonfiction – absorbing, detailed, nuanced, and based on solid, reliable sources. You can see the author's enormous work to recreate the events as best as possible, present key figures, their motives, stories, often difficult to understand actions and moral dilemmas. Another advantage of the book is its extensive bibliography and 100 pages of footnotes, which are really worth looking at, because the author adds many additional things there.

For me, the last part of the book, devoted to the issue of settling with the past and remembering these events, was particularly interesting. How key activists – Brendan Hughes, Dolours and Marian Price, Gerry Adams and others – referred to their actions after many years – or how they denied them, how they were affected by the crimes they committed, the hunger strikes they went on, their participation in planning attacks or kidnappings. Also how the families of victims, such as the aforementioned McConville children, dealt with the past. The author based his work on interviews, archives and recordings of interviews with participants in the conflict, and collaborated with researchers and journalists. The result is a reliable, nuanced and multidimensional work.

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sunflower_13's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.75

Great narrator and even better storytelling of true events. I think this is a book I’ll read the physical version as well as there apparently are several notes which aren’t included in the audiobook.

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akswhy's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

A wildly comprehensive book on a notoriously difficult to tackle subject. I learned TONS, but I think the book was too long. It could have been trimmed down.

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finknight's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

5.0

an incredibly important, unapologetic, and impartial account of the troubles and ireland. the book jumps around between narratives of key individuals but in a manner which is not confusing but aids the narrative, which all comes together cohesively. utterly recommend; even, and especially, for those who know little about ireland & history but are looking to learn!!

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