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Secret Words: A Novel
Barbar Orsini, the last one to leave home and live on her own, works as a receptionist at a neighborhood counseling center, and discovers new meaning in her life
229 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 10, 2024
(slightly edited for spelling and grammatical errors August 2024, and have added a link to an excellent piece on Jonathan Strong from the Michigan Review in 2011: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text...)
"Barbara Orsini, shy and almost thirty, is the last of her family to move out on her own. Only a short bus ride away from her parents' house, Barbara discovers an intriguing new world. As a receptionist at the neighborhood counselling centre, she sees hope and despair in equal measure. Her neighbor, Paul Felice, a graduate student from the West Indies, becomes a supportive friend, yet their alliance makes her Italian-American family decidedly uneasy. Barbara gains strength with every challenge, and when budget cuts threaten her job, she defiantly stands up for her rights."
'...at a time when the phrase 'dysfunctional family' threatens to become redundant, Strong gives us a rare treat in 'Secret Words' an extended family that's a home base, not a prison, for its members...In Barbara Orsini, Strong has created a workingman's heroine: a sometimes unpredictable but always trustworthy woman whose passion, sensitivity, and basic decency invariably lead her to do the right thing.' From The Village Voice.
'Jonathan Strong's 'Secret Words' is more than a beautifully written novel, although it is that...An oasis in the violent and sometimes cursory fiction of the 1990s, Strong's novel is both appealing and convincing. It works..' From American Book Review.
'...a delightful novel...(Jonathan Strong is a compassionate observer and a writer of considerable grace...' From The Providence Journal.
All of the above is from the back cover of the 1993 paperback edition from Zoland Books.
This is one of the finest novels by a grossly overlooked American writer and I have quoted so extensively because I wanted to provide some support for my own unstinting praise for this novel. Strong is amazingly good at developing his characters and convincingly setting them in their own milieu and time. He has written one of the finest novels about Americans and American society in the midst of change. In this case it is the 1980s but like the way his first volume 'Tike and Five Stories' captured so much of the essence of the 1960s 'Secret Words' is not restricted nor particular to its time. He writes beautifully and sympathetically about people as individuals and as part of families and communities.
Mr. Strong is writer who needs to be read.
"Barbara Orsini, shy and almost thirty, is the last of her family to move out on her own. Only a short bus ride away from her parents' house, Barbara discovers an intriguing new world. As a receptionist at the neighborhood counselling centre, she sees hope and despair in equal measure. Her neighbor, Paul Felice, a graduate student from the West Indies, becomes a supportive friend, yet their alliance makes her Italian-American family decidedly uneasy. Barbara gains strength with every challenge, and when budget cuts threaten her job, she defiantly stands up for her rights."
'...at a time when the phrase 'dysfunctional family' threatens to become redundant, Strong gives us a rare treat in 'Secret Words' an extended family that's a home base, not a prison, for its members...In Barbara Orsini, Strong has created a workingman's heroine: a sometimes unpredictable but always trustworthy woman whose passion, sensitivity, and basic decency invariably lead her to do the right thing.' From The Village Voice.
'Jonathan Strong's 'Secret Words' is more than a beautifully written novel, although it is that...An oasis in the violent and sometimes cursory fiction of the 1990s, Strong's novel is both appealing and convincing. It works..' From American Book Review.
'...a delightful novel...(Jonathan Strong is a compassionate observer and a writer of considerable grace...' From The Providence Journal.
All of the above is from the back cover of the 1993 paperback edition from Zoland Books.
This is one of the finest novels by a grossly overlooked American writer and I have quoted so extensively because I wanted to provide some support for my own unstinting praise for this novel. Strong is amazingly good at developing his characters and convincingly setting them in their own milieu and time. He has written one of the finest novels about Americans and American society in the midst of change. In this case it is the 1980s but like the way his first volume 'Tike and Five Stories' captured so much of the essence of the 1960s 'Secret Words' is not restricted nor particular to its time. He writes beautifully and sympathetically about people as individuals and as part of families and communities.
Mr. Strong is writer who needs to be read.
Read
June 14, 2011This was the first of Strong's books I read, and is still my favorite. Barbara is the quietest and most unassuming type of heroine. But we watch her grow to the point of being able to deliver the novel's killer last line, which I can still can quote, 17 years after reading it.
As subtle and moving as Brooklyn.
As subtle and moving as Brooklyn.
February 2, 2009
Now I read this book a while ago after running across it in a little book store in Amhurst, MA. Sometimes I don't know why I love a book and this will be among those that I love for no reason other than that it inspired me; it touched me. It was beautiful in its simplicity. I found the choice of writing style to be interesting with this author because I guess I really did believe it fit our subject, when with other authors, this type of writing style might have irritated me. It made me look at my own inner struggles in embracing my past even while gaining strength and moving forward in my own direction, on my own path.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews