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Writing In An Age Of Silence
A revealing look at the power of speaking out, Writing in an Age of Silence describes Paretski’s coming of age in a time of great possibility, during the civil rights movement, the peace movement, and the women’s movement. Bestselling crime-writer Sarah Paretsky has won critical acclaim for her V.I. Warshawski novels, centered around one of the first and most popular female investigators in contemporary fiction. In this fascinating and personal account, Paretsky describes a life shaped by the desire to act. From the feminist movement—which triggered her aspirations to write and shaped the character of her female detective—to the Patriot Act and the liberties we have lost, Paretsky describes the struggle of one individual to find a voice. A moving call to action, Writing in an Age of Silence chronicles the social changes that have shaped contemporary America, and mirrors a desire for freedom, both personal and political, that many Americans will relate to today.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 2007
15 people are currently reading
428 people want to read
About the author
Sara Paretsky
271 books2,361 followersSara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction. Paretsky was raised in Kansas, and graduated from the state university with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She ultimately completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago, entitled The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War, and finally earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Married to a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, she has lived in Chicago since 1968.
The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.
Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.
Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).
The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.
Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.
Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
August 12, 2016
I hadn’t previously read anything by Paretsky, yet that didn’t affect my experience of these passionate, though a bit repetitive, memoir-essays, not even when she talks of how her famous detective V I Warshawski grew out of her discovery of Raymond Chandler; her opposition to his femme fatale in The Big Sleep; a roommate’s near-death experience after an abortion and Paretsky's own time on the South Side of Chicago during the summer when MLK, Jr. was also there. Eventually Chicago became Paretsky’s home and my favorite anecdote is of a group of working wives of long-unemployed steelworkers coming to a reading to tell Paretsky they hadn’t read a book since high school--until they found out V I was from their neighborhood.
Paretsky writes of how her childhood in Lawrence, Kansas, shaped her, not only with how she was expected by increasingly unbalanced parents to be a dutiful housebound daughter (inferior to her four brothers); but how the city of Lawrence reacted to the Communist scares of the 50s. When her parents, Jewish liberals (excepting how they treated their sole daughter), protested a mandatory revival meeting at Sara’s high school, the local newspaper published their phone number, encouraging their readers to let Sara’s parents know how they felt about Communist atheists. Her time there taught her how easily fear-mongering and a mob mentality can develop; and she ends this slim book with scary stories of what the Patriot Act has rendered and what she feels that has done to us, i.e., the U.S.
Paretsky writes of how her childhood in Lawrence, Kansas, shaped her, not only with how she was expected by increasingly unbalanced parents to be a dutiful housebound daughter (inferior to her four brothers); but how the city of Lawrence reacted to the Communist scares of the 50s. When her parents, Jewish liberals (excepting how they treated their sole daughter), protested a mandatory revival meeting at Sara’s high school, the local newspaper published their phone number, encouraging their readers to let Sara’s parents know how they felt about Communist atheists. Her time there taught her how easily fear-mongering and a mob mentality can develop; and she ends this slim book with scary stories of what the Patriot Act has rendered and what she feels that has done to us, i.e., the U.S.
March 30, 2016
Sara Paretsky is an amazing writer. Politics aside, I was fascinated to read about what shapes her work. I was most intrigued by the fourth essay/talk and how she decided upon V I as a community activist. Instead of being a loner, she desires V I in the company of many. I think this is what sets her apart from other mystery writers that I have attempted to read who for the most part work alone. I find these books dull and cannot get myself excited to read them. As Paretsky enters what I would think is the latter part of her career I would hope that she has V I groom a successor and continue the series that way. Also, that she herself write more non-fiction works as I found the history anecdotes in this brief memoir captivating.
January 2, 2014
Writing in an Age of Silence is promoted as a memoir, however, it’s both more and less than that. Paretsky writes the very popular V I Warshawski detective series. V I and Paretsky are feminists and aren’t afraid of that word, at a time when most women eschew it. I love V I. Even when she’s a bit strident, I appreciate and agree with what she says. (Besides, I’ve been known to be a bit strident myself.) Sara Paretsky, however, is not strident in Writing in an Age of Silence; she’s witty and heartfelt and very readable.
Paretsky grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, in the 50s. Her parents were Jewish, well-educated, and literate. Her mother, in fact, had an opportunity to go to medical school, but inexplicably refused to take the bus required to get her there. Paretsky’s father was a scientist; a researcher. For educated people they had surprisingly unenlightened ideas about parenting a daughter. Not only was her family isolated as a religious minority (they were Jewish,) she was isolated as the only girl with four brothers. At a young age she was required to take on household duties of cleaning, washing dishes, attending to her brothers, baking, etc. When they were old enough to drive, her brothers were allowed to take the car; she was not. As a girl, she was supposed to be at home.
Paretsky was a National Merit scholar, but, unlike her brothers, her parents refused to pay for her college, or allow her to leave the state to attend. Not even realizing that she had an option, she paid her own way to attend college in Kansas. When she started grad school at the University of Chicago, her father told her “not to be surprised if [she] failed, since it was a first-rate school and [hers] was a second-rate mind.” Her parents had even sent her for secretarial training in case she didn’t marry.
Paretsky began writing as a young girl. She wrote stories and plays; sometimes acting out the plays with her brothers. She continued to write throughout school and into college, although she rarely shared her work with anyone after she left home. Paretsky was involved in the Civil Rights movement once she went to Chicago and that experience had an impact on her eventual creation of V I Warshawsky. Paretsky says that much of what shaped V I’s history came from trying to understand Chicago’s racial, ethnic, and religions divisions. “I’m not very interested in the needs or motivations of the meta-powerful, the Cheneys, the Haliburtons, the Enrons; it’s a weakness in my books that I don’t explore the characters of the wicked very well. I’ve always sided with the underdog.”
The character of V I Warshawsky was born on the south side of Chicago, where so much racial unrest occurred in the 60s and also in the 70s when Paretsky was there. Paretsky gave V I a Polish last name because one of her grandparents had been Polish. Paretsky had been reading mysteries for quite a while by then and gave a lot of thought to some aspects of her heroine, but not others. She made V I somewhat conventional by making her an orphaned, hard-drinking, Smith & Wesson-packing detective. She deliberately veered from the norm regarding V I’s sexuality. Paretsky says that she learned over time that “a woman’s moral character was determined by her sexuality: if she were chaste, she was good, but helpless, unable to act. If she had sex, she could act, but she could perform only evil deeds.” Popular culture had taught her that she (and all women) lived only in their bodies. Women used their bodies to get men to do ‘bad things,’ and if successful she would get pregnant. That was her punishment. If she had an abortion to escape her punishment, then she had to die. Then a man would kill the abortionist as an act of justice.
Warshawski, therefore, is designed to break these societal rules regarding sexual conduct. Paretsky decided not to use female sexuality to exploit her characters or her readers. “..she is an adult, with the same freedoms that men have to act, to move, to make decisions, to fall in love, experience sex, even to be wrong, without any of those things making her a monster.” V I has relationships and doesn’t have to suffer punishment for having had sex. This was quite a remarkable change at the time.
Throughout Writing in a Time of Silence, Paretsky writes about political and social issues. Her parents escaped the overt discrimination in Lawrence by buying a house outside of town; however, they protested for open housing that prevented Jews and blacks from buying where they would like. She was politically active throughout her life. In this book she rails against the so-called PATRIOT Act and the not-so-slow deterioration of our civil rights. This book was published in 2007; I can imagine how she would react now to the NSA spying that we’re now aware of. Spying that has received a rather blasé reaction from most Americans would be (probably has been) met with vehement objection from Paretsky.
Paretsky also discusses women’s rights, as I said earlier, from a feminist perspective. She talks about Americans being “close to the point of having a legal right to a non-existent medical procedure” because access to abortions has been chipped away at so diligently by the radical right. Women are still paid less than men for comparable work; even contraception is no longer something that women can take for granted.
In addition, Paretsky talks about many other issues that are pressing today: Corporate greed and control of our government; political corruption, such as that of Cheney and Halliburton; environmental degradation. She packs a lot into a slim volume.
All these topics are mingled from the very beginning of the book. There are no separate sections for early life, education, writing, politics, and so on. For Paretsky all these things are life and dwell together. And rightly so. I found this short book absorbing. I’m looking forwarding to reading more V I Warshawsky novels and also reading more essays by Sara Paretsky.
Paretsky grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, in the 50s. Her parents were Jewish, well-educated, and literate. Her mother, in fact, had an opportunity to go to medical school, but inexplicably refused to take the bus required to get her there. Paretsky’s father was a scientist; a researcher. For educated people they had surprisingly unenlightened ideas about parenting a daughter. Not only was her family isolated as a religious minority (they were Jewish,) she was isolated as the only girl with four brothers. At a young age she was required to take on household duties of cleaning, washing dishes, attending to her brothers, baking, etc. When they were old enough to drive, her brothers were allowed to take the car; she was not. As a girl, she was supposed to be at home.
Paretsky was a National Merit scholar, but, unlike her brothers, her parents refused to pay for her college, or allow her to leave the state to attend. Not even realizing that she had an option, she paid her own way to attend college in Kansas. When she started grad school at the University of Chicago, her father told her “not to be surprised if [she] failed, since it was a first-rate school and [hers] was a second-rate mind.” Her parents had even sent her for secretarial training in case she didn’t marry.
Paretsky began writing as a young girl. She wrote stories and plays; sometimes acting out the plays with her brothers. She continued to write throughout school and into college, although she rarely shared her work with anyone after she left home. Paretsky was involved in the Civil Rights movement once she went to Chicago and that experience had an impact on her eventual creation of V I Warshawsky. Paretsky says that much of what shaped V I’s history came from trying to understand Chicago’s racial, ethnic, and religions divisions. “I’m not very interested in the needs or motivations of the meta-powerful, the Cheneys, the Haliburtons, the Enrons; it’s a weakness in my books that I don’t explore the characters of the wicked very well. I’ve always sided with the underdog.”
The character of V I Warshawsky was born on the south side of Chicago, where so much racial unrest occurred in the 60s and also in the 70s when Paretsky was there. Paretsky gave V I a Polish last name because one of her grandparents had been Polish. Paretsky had been reading mysteries for quite a while by then and gave a lot of thought to some aspects of her heroine, but not others. She made V I somewhat conventional by making her an orphaned, hard-drinking, Smith & Wesson-packing detective. She deliberately veered from the norm regarding V I’s sexuality. Paretsky says that she learned over time that “a woman’s moral character was determined by her sexuality: if she were chaste, she was good, but helpless, unable to act. If she had sex, she could act, but she could perform only evil deeds.” Popular culture had taught her that she (and all women) lived only in their bodies. Women used their bodies to get men to do ‘bad things,’ and if successful she would get pregnant. That was her punishment. If she had an abortion to escape her punishment, then she had to die. Then a man would kill the abortionist as an act of justice.
Warshawski, therefore, is designed to break these societal rules regarding sexual conduct. Paretsky decided not to use female sexuality to exploit her characters or her readers. “..she is an adult, with the same freedoms that men have to act, to move, to make decisions, to fall in love, experience sex, even to be wrong, without any of those things making her a monster.” V I has relationships and doesn’t have to suffer punishment for having had sex. This was quite a remarkable change at the time.
Throughout Writing in a Time of Silence, Paretsky writes about political and social issues. Her parents escaped the overt discrimination in Lawrence by buying a house outside of town; however, they protested for open housing that prevented Jews and blacks from buying where they would like. She was politically active throughout her life. In this book she rails against the so-called PATRIOT Act and the not-so-slow deterioration of our civil rights. This book was published in 2007; I can imagine how she would react now to the NSA spying that we’re now aware of. Spying that has received a rather blasé reaction from most Americans would be (probably has been) met with vehement objection from Paretsky.
Paretsky also discusses women’s rights, as I said earlier, from a feminist perspective. She talks about Americans being “close to the point of having a legal right to a non-existent medical procedure” because access to abortions has been chipped away at so diligently by the radical right. Women are still paid less than men for comparable work; even contraception is no longer something that women can take for granted.
In addition, Paretsky talks about many other issues that are pressing today: Corporate greed and control of our government; political corruption, such as that of Cheney and Halliburton; environmental degradation. She packs a lot into a slim volume.
All these topics are mingled from the very beginning of the book. There are no separate sections for early life, education, writing, politics, and so on. For Paretsky all these things are life and dwell together. And rightly so. I found this short book absorbing. I’m looking forwarding to reading more V I Warshawsky novels and also reading more essays by Sara Paretsky.
August 30, 2012
I was surprised to find I had not reviewed this book, because it has affected me directly (as a person potentially interested in publishing something), and also because the philosophical bent, which is class conscious and aware of post-Jim-Crow discrimination, is something we share. (My family is multiracial, so as Caucasian woman, I have seen things that some white folks don't).
This is a slender volume, and it is nonfiction. It is completely different from the whole Vic Warshawski detective series, and yet it is clearly written by a person with the same heart. If you are a Warshawski fan, you will recognize the voice.
Paretsky talks about her own experience growing up in Lawrence, Kansas as a lone Jewish student amongst Christians of various stripes, a highly intolerant environment especially during the period of Senator Joe McCarthy's red-baiting. Her parents stood up for her Constitutional right not to participate in, or hear, the Lord's Prayer at the start of every school day. In retaliation, the public school made her sit in the office as if she were being punished, or stand in the aisle at school during the assembly. The tension was rife; they cut it slightly by moving outside of town, where airspace gave them a little bit of distance from the hostility.
It is no wonder that Paretsky headed for Chicago, a diverse metropolitan city where everyone has a place (not that it has been or is perfect, but a welcome relief from the localized glare in a small, conservative town).
She combines her memoir with a discussion of becoming a writer; in this, she successfully segues back and forth, not unlike Stephen King, but each has information and advice unlike the other and yet useful, so a fan and/or potential writer will enjoy both.
Many people will not have realized how consolidated the publishing industry has become. Little presses like Mysterious Press have been absorbed by larger conglomerates. As of the first edition of this book, there were 8 major publishers all looking for a higher profit margin than the 40 or so who were in business when Paretsky was first published. As a known writer, she is given book deals, but wonders whether her first novel would have made the cut. This is daunting information indeed.
This slender volume wields a lot more information and entertainment than wordier tomes by other writers may. If you have a chance to check it out from a library or buy it used, that's nice. I got the hard cover as a birthday gift the year it came out, and was not sorry to have asked for it.
This is a slender volume, and it is nonfiction. It is completely different from the whole Vic Warshawski detective series, and yet it is clearly written by a person with the same heart. If you are a Warshawski fan, you will recognize the voice.
Paretsky talks about her own experience growing up in Lawrence, Kansas as a lone Jewish student amongst Christians of various stripes, a highly intolerant environment especially during the period of Senator Joe McCarthy's red-baiting. Her parents stood up for her Constitutional right not to participate in, or hear, the Lord's Prayer at the start of every school day. In retaliation, the public school made her sit in the office as if she were being punished, or stand in the aisle at school during the assembly. The tension was rife; they cut it slightly by moving outside of town, where airspace gave them a little bit of distance from the hostility.
It is no wonder that Paretsky headed for Chicago, a diverse metropolitan city where everyone has a place (not that it has been or is perfect, but a welcome relief from the localized glare in a small, conservative town).
She combines her memoir with a discussion of becoming a writer; in this, she successfully segues back and forth, not unlike Stephen King, but each has information and advice unlike the other and yet useful, so a fan and/or potential writer will enjoy both.
Many people will not have realized how consolidated the publishing industry has become. Little presses like Mysterious Press have been absorbed by larger conglomerates. As of the first edition of this book, there were 8 major publishers all looking for a higher profit margin than the 40 or so who were in business when Paretsky was first published. As a known writer, she is given book deals, but wonders whether her first novel would have made the cut. This is daunting information indeed.
This slender volume wields a lot more information and entertainment than wordier tomes by other writers may. If you have a chance to check it out from a library or buy it used, that's nice. I got the hard cover as a birthday gift the year it came out, and was not sorry to have asked for it.
December 14, 2017
I felt ashamed reading this. I take for granted the advances that have been made to reduce sexism and it takes a message from a woman like Ms. Paretsky to wake me up. I wish there was more to this book (her Jewish brother became a Dominican friar?!?!) but it is powerful and depressing and inspiring, all at once.
What a woman.
What a woman.
January 22, 2014
In the 5 essays in this book, Sara Paretsky gives us a mini memoir of her childhood in Kansas (including some glimpses into her college and early post-college years. She also gives us her thoughts on women's rights, especially their reproductive rights, thoughts on American individualism, and thoughts on post 9/11 American and the impact of the Patriot Act on our civil rights. She's pretty strident in her views, but not, I think, without cause. She seems a bit naïve as to the agendas of such politicians as Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton and a bit harsh as to the agenda of Reagan and the Bushes. But overall, she's right about the continuing attack on women's reproductive rights and is rightfully concerned about the loss of civil liberties as a result of the application of Patriot Act. She reminds me in some degree of Joan Baez. I love her books and I love Baez's songs and her voice but both are further to the left than I in their politics. That said, I applaud them for speaking their minds and making me think.
On the memoir side, Paretsky recollections are very raw. It does not appear that she has been able to put much distance between how she thought of herself then and how she thinks of herself now. She is an accomplished and successful author but that inferiority complex still seems to have its grip on her. All I can say is keep on keeping on and may VI Warshawski continue to fight the good fight as the premier female PI!
On the memoir side, Paretsky recollections are very raw. It does not appear that she has been able to put much distance between how she thought of herself then and how she thinks of herself now. She is an accomplished and successful author but that inferiority complex still seems to have its grip on her. All I can say is keep on keeping on and may VI Warshawski continue to fight the good fight as the premier female PI!
February 9, 2009
In a departure from her usual fiction and mystery books, Paretsky turns her pen to her childhood and the significant events that shaped her writing. It’s fascinating stuff. Her eccentric parents moved their family to a secluded part of Lawrence, Kansas and raised her conservatively, keeping her at home to take care of household tasks. Her brother had taught her to read, and she began telling stories from a very young age.
As a graduate student in 1969, Sara remembers being paralyzed by a professor, the first person ever, to ask her what she wanted to do with her life. Having been sent to secretarial school, in case she didn’t marry right away, this was a new idea for her. Of that time she says, “it was my great good fortune to come of age just when America became a land of great possibility and opportunity.” It was our great fortune as well, for Paretsky has remained actively involved with the social issues that are important to her. From her first volunteer experience on Chicago’s south side to the founding of Sisters in Crime, Paretsky’s exploration of modern day America is compelling and memorable.
As a graduate student in 1969, Sara remembers being paralyzed by a professor, the first person ever, to ask her what she wanted to do with her life. Having been sent to secretarial school, in case she didn’t marry right away, this was a new idea for her. Of that time she says, “it was my great good fortune to come of age just when America became a land of great possibility and opportunity.” It was our great fortune as well, for Paretsky has remained actively involved with the social issues that are important to her. From her first volunteer experience on Chicago’s south side to the founding of Sisters in Crime, Paretsky’s exploration of modern day America is compelling and memorable.
September 10, 2010
It bothers me that from 2001-2008, while I tried mightily to get people to pay attention to the tragedy occurring in the White House (and spreading from there around the world), people were content to ignore it. Sara Paretsky wasn't ignoring it. It bothers me that I couldn't hear her voice during that time. There were many of us out there, being smart, crying foul, and trying to make people listen.
In this book, she writes about the awful things Dubya and Company did, but she writes about other things too: her childhood in Kansas, a summer spent as an activist in 1966 Chicago, and the role of females in noir as well as more modern crime fiction. She crams a lot of insight into few pages, and you can read this book in less than a day. Get on it.
In this book, she writes about the awful things Dubya and Company did, but she writes about other things too: her childhood in Kansas, a summer spent as an activist in 1966 Chicago, and the role of females in noir as well as more modern crime fiction. She crams a lot of insight into few pages, and you can read this book in less than a day. Get on it.
July 18, 2008
Sara Paretsky is, without a doubt, my favorite detective novelist. I've always thought her books were smart, rich, engaging on so many levels. With this interconnected set of essays (really a memoir), Paretsky reveals where all that rich, smart stuff comes from in her V I Warshawski novels. Her essays detail her childhood in rural Kansas, her move to Chicago, her involvement in community organizing, her PhD in 19th-century American history/religion, and her outrage over the suppression of free speech in the U.S. post-9/11. Excellent stuff!
February 10, 2010
Sara Paretsky has yet again delivered a book that is not just entertaining but also highly political. This is a quasi auto-biography, with a lot of biographical information in the first chapters, and essays and speeches in the later ones. Includes essays about the development of the American individualism from the time of the early settlers, in politics and in literature; and about politics and individual freedom, and the effects of the patriot act.
November 27, 2016
This was the perfect book for this moment. Go and read it now to be reminded that much of what we're going through now isn't new. We did it during McCarthyism. The ugly racism was there during the Civil Rights movement, though we only remember the triumph and not the people who resisted. Maybe we've moved backward with this election, but we have people who've been here before, like Paretsky. We did it before. We can do it again.
August 28, 2016
Paretsky is a feminist and a free-speech advocate. Based on the title, we perhaps expected this to be a bit more confessional and also less discreet in some areas; yet we loved it for its passion and relevancy.
June 28, 2015
Incredible
This is a beautiful work of art, a journey, a history, a manifesto and an inspiration. The world would be better if all read it.
This is a beautiful work of art, a journey, a history, a manifesto and an inspiration. The world would be better if all read it.
July 9, 2017
This book is a collection of 5 essays written by Sara Paretsky and focus on her life as a writer. Since I love her detective novels, I found this book about her background and the development of her famous character, Vic Warshawski, fascinating.
Paretsky and I have apparently crossed paths a couple of times. In the second essay, The King and I, she discusses spending the summer of 1966 in Chicago as a community organizer. This was the summer of race riots and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the summer of 1967, I spend a week on the south side of Chicago doing volunteer work. Most of my time was spent in the area of 20th and Halstead, the Latino area of the city. I could identify with her experiences that summer.
In the last essay, Truth, Lies and Duct Tape, Paretsky discusses the Patriot Act and the loss of some of our civil rights. She mentions a speech that she gave in Toledo, OH regarding the challenges we were facing in our society. I was in attendance at that speech and was part of the crowd that gave her a standing ovation.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the writing of Sara Paretsky.
Paretsky and I have apparently crossed paths a couple of times. In the second essay, The King and I, she discusses spending the summer of 1966 in Chicago as a community organizer. This was the summer of race riots and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the summer of 1967, I spend a week on the south side of Chicago doing volunteer work. Most of my time was spent in the area of 20th and Halstead, the Latino area of the city. I could identify with her experiences that summer.
In the last essay, Truth, Lies and Duct Tape, Paretsky discusses the Patriot Act and the loss of some of our civil rights. She mentions a speech that she gave in Toledo, OH regarding the challenges we were facing in our society. I was in attendance at that speech and was part of the crowd that gave her a standing ovation.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the writing of Sara Paretsky.
October 4, 2007
This is a compelling, if meandering, assortment of reflections on racism and terrorism, feminism and freedom. Author Sara Paretsky has witnessed some of the most extreme hatred in modern American society, and transcended sexist repression in her own life to achieve a college education and become a writer.
Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, Paretsky learned that terrorism happens in the United States, where it is perpetrated by Americans against Americans. ”For a fifteen-month span in 1970-1971, there was a fire-bombing every day, often more than one. Student protestors set off some of these bombs; Minutemen and other right-wing groups carried out other attacks.” (p. 9) A high school teacher in her hometown, who was learning Russian for a Ph.D. in Soviet history, was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer and forced to resign. Paretsky’s Jewish family was subjected to intimidation when they refused to assimilate into the Christian culture and theology. “When my parents protested a religious revival held in the town high school--at which student attendance was mandatory--the paper printed their names and phone number and urged citizens to call to tell them how little use America had for Communist-loving atheists. For weeks my parents got hate calls in the middle of the night urging them to go back where they came from--southern Illinois for my mother, Brooklyn for my father.” (pp. 127-128)
Paretsky reserves some of her sharpest commentary for the impossible standard by which women can be judged only as virgins or sluts (“angels” or “monsters”, as she puts it), and by which standard they are granted little reproductive control. She speaks unflinchingly about the violence committed against abortion clinics. So successful has the opposition been in intimidating abortion providers out of business, that, she warns, “In America we are close to the point of having a legal right to a non-existent medical procedure.” (p. 66)
The book is capped with a concise, persuasive report and analysis of how the Patriot Act is being used to collect data on American citizens, particularly monitoring readers and writers. This finale alone makes the book worth picking up.
Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, Paretsky learned that terrorism happens in the United States, where it is perpetrated by Americans against Americans. ”For a fifteen-month span in 1970-1971, there was a fire-bombing every day, often more than one. Student protestors set off some of these bombs; Minutemen and other right-wing groups carried out other attacks.” (p. 9) A high school teacher in her hometown, who was learning Russian for a Ph.D. in Soviet history, was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer and forced to resign. Paretsky’s Jewish family was subjected to intimidation when they refused to assimilate into the Christian culture and theology. “When my parents protested a religious revival held in the town high school--at which student attendance was mandatory--the paper printed their names and phone number and urged citizens to call to tell them how little use America had for Communist-loving atheists. For weeks my parents got hate calls in the middle of the night urging them to go back where they came from--southern Illinois for my mother, Brooklyn for my father.” (pp. 127-128)
Paretsky reserves some of her sharpest commentary for the impossible standard by which women can be judged only as virgins or sluts (“angels” or “monsters”, as she puts it), and by which standard they are granted little reproductive control. She speaks unflinchingly about the violence committed against abortion clinics. So successful has the opposition been in intimidating abortion providers out of business, that, she warns, “In America we are close to the point of having a legal right to a non-existent medical procedure.” (p. 66)
The book is capped with a concise, persuasive report and analysis of how the Patriot Act is being used to collect data on American citizens, particularly monitoring readers and writers. This finale alone makes the book worth picking up.
August 31, 2015
Paretsky chronicles the various influences of a troubled childhood, participation in the Civil Rights movement, and Second Wave feminism on her work--notably, her creation of her beloved female private eye, VI Warshawski. Her work is passionate and very political. I was especially struck by a twist on the characterization of the private detective. Historically studies of the private eye stress his/her loneliness and rugged individualism. Paretsky chronicles how this happened with such writers as Hammett and Chandler, and how romantic it seemed in their day. But she says now a destructive American individualism is more characteristic of giant corporations that care nothing about the common good. That's why she paints VI as a woman valuing relationships and connections, while depicting the villains as embodying a destructive individualism. This is a short book and a fast read. Essential for anyone who cares about the mystery genre, as well as everyone else!
August 27, 2018
Paretsky writes with keen insight and deep passion about all the forces that silence women. The forces come from social pressure to "be a good girl" to sit down, shut up. They come from political machinery that doesn't allow women to vote, or buy property, or be heard in court. These forces come from cultures that treat women as slaves, as chattel, or as less than worthy to speak up in a man's world. Certain religions treat women as disposable commodities to be bartered over or discarded at will. Despite these crushing forces, women continue to be heard, in part, because of women writers who refuse to be silenced. This powerful book explores these issues and encourages women to press on and fight the good fight.
Paretsky walks the walk through her strong female protagonists and by her own example. This is an excellent book for women writers, especially young writers, to encourage them to find their voice and to use it.
Paretsky walks the walk through her strong female protagonists and by her own example. This is an excellent book for women writers, especially young writers, to encourage them to find their voice and to use it.
January 1, 2015
Sara Paretsky is of course a well known author. I've read many of her VI Warshawski crime novels. I had expected this memoir to be about writing, that's what the title suggests anyway. Instead, it's a highly political book with several essays on women's rights - including a passionate defense of Roe vs Wade - and an even more passionate rant against the Patriot Act. From her books, Paretsky's liberal views were pretty clear, but she outlines them here even more clearly. In itself, that's fine, but I was just expecting something else. The 'personal stuff' is mostly limited to the first chapter and even then she's vague. I had hoped for insights into her writing life, the writing process etc. No such luck. The essay's are well written of course, even if I didn't agree with her viewpoints, but it wasn't what I was looking for.
February 28, 2015
I read this book when it was first published, and reread it again in one day last summer. As a longtime fan of V. I. Warshawski I love Paretsky's writing. Although this is non-fiction, this is a very important book that means a lot to me. I will probably reread it again in a few years!
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
January 31, 2017
Published in 2007 but relevant today in so many ways......
Sarah Paretsky, crime writer and creator of tough female sleuth V.I. Warshawski, takes on politics, the history of American individualism, free speech, women's rights.... all in the context of her own life challenges. Worth reading. Makes you think.
Sarah Paretsky, crime writer and creator of tough female sleuth V.I. Warshawski, takes on politics, the history of American individualism, free speech, women's rights.... all in the context of her own life challenges. Worth reading. Makes you think.
September 7, 2007
Not what I expected. Basically instead of a biography, it is basically Sara Paretsky ranting about the political climate today, with a few to history. Interesting only if you're a liberal, and then not really b/c it's all stuff you know.
September 14, 2009
The first half - about Sara's childhood and how she came to write was quite interesting, but it was in the second half that this book came into its own... I found her writing on free speech and publishing very insightful.
April 7, 2013
I thought I had read everything Sara Paretsky had written over the last 20 years. This book had escaped me. It is part autobiography, part politics, part feminism and part literature class. And it's only 138 pages. This is a little gem.
June 5, 2007
I love Paretsky's crime novels and this short memoir is a nice peek into her heart and mind. I really appreciate her eloquence with her anger.
October 21, 2007
I thought it was well written, interesting, historical, political and revealing of how she developed the character V.I. Warshawski.
February 11, 2009
A wonderful memoir of a courageous writer!
October 24, 2012
A thoughtful book of essays by Sara Paretsky. She is speaking tonight at Dominican on intellectual freedom, so I wanted to get a feel for what she might have to say.
January 22, 2019
I never realized what an ardent supporter of Women's Rights that Paretsky is but her arguments make sense and she obviously practices what she preaches.
January 20, 2018
I borrowed this from my library, hoping that it would provide some writing insights - that is, some knowledge of how a particular author, whose fictional detective was multi-dimensional, worked her craft.
Instead, it's largely a political screed, with poorly sourced "factoids", anecdotal horrors (in an unnamed city, a Black student was FORBIDDEN to take a science course needed for her future career as a doctor - no indication whether that student's skill levels in math and science were up to the rigors of the course), and over-the-top accusations of condom-banning by the US government.
BTW, despite Paretsky's assertion that a Republican administration BANNED sending condoms to foreign countries, on-the-ground residents of many foreign countries have reported the opposite - condoms are stacked floor to ceiling, while antibiotics and other necessary medicines are scarce. See this article, one I found in a few seconds. https://www.mercatornet.com/articles/...
Instead, it's largely a political screed, with poorly sourced "factoids", anecdotal horrors (in an unnamed city, a Black student was FORBIDDEN to take a science course needed for her future career as a doctor - no indication whether that student's skill levels in math and science were up to the rigors of the course), and over-the-top accusations of condom-banning by the US government.
BTW, despite Paretsky's assertion that a Republican administration BANNED sending condoms to foreign countries, on-the-ground residents of many foreign countries have reported the opposite - condoms are stacked floor to ceiling, while antibiotics and other necessary medicines are scarce. See this article, one I found in a few seconds. https://www.mercatornet.com/articles/...
September 7, 2023
I first came across the author's books in 1994 and since then I have read 23 of her books (some of them three times!) and I think the only book of hers which I have not read is her first VI novel "Indemnity only". I am definitely a fan.
This is a slim volume (138 pages in the edition I read) containing five essays plus a short introduction by the author. This deals with events in her life and her reaction to political events in her lifetime. I enjoyed this but I suspect that it may not be for casual readers of her novels.
This is a slim volume (138 pages in the edition I read) containing five essays plus a short introduction by the author. This deals with events in her life and her reaction to political events in her lifetime. I enjoyed this but I suspect that it may not be for casual readers of her novels.
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