spellbound voyager ’s Reviews > Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland > Status Update

the storytelling in this book fails to deliver on all fronts: it claims to be focused on Jean McConville’s murder but meanders in and out of her story without purpose. It provides a play by play of some of the actions of 4 main actors in the provos without adding any context. It’s not a critic of Britain as an occupying force because it fails to actually provide instances of analysis. Lackluster all around.

“This sort of scene might have become common place in Northern Ireland, but it felt deeply jarring in London.”

excuse me???? Normalizing the bombing of an occupied people to represent a dichotomy where it’s ok to be bombed vs where it’s not is reprehensible.

if one read this with zero context, one would think the IRA’s actions were in a vacuum. Senseless evil violence with no substance. Seemingly random hostility. The narrative completely isolates the colonial and historical context of the resistance movement.

This is so vile.

unfortunately, the barely existent commentary on the motivations and radicalization of the members that led to the brutal acts of resistance is doing this book a *huge* disservice

this is my third book of Keefe’s and while I have adored his work, this book feels like a searing reveal of his liberal establishment views instead of an objective investigative piece

I SEE I SEE DISREGARD MY LAST UPDATE I yam simply impatient >.<

this is incredible, but there is simply no way I’m going to be able to track all these names

ahhh this is exactly what I was expecting