Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

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

12 reviews

laurenfro22's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Solid text about the memories of folks in the Troubles and the surrounding political, social, and economic landscapes. Made more interesting from my personal history in Belfast and current work at Boston College. The writing is clippy, keeping you moving back and forth in time from perspective to perspective so it doesn’t feel dense and slogging like some other books about this era. Certainly puts events and decisions into perspective laying out the information for readers to explore and understand better. 

“The bogs of Ireland are a landscape that remembers everything that has happened in and to it.” (265) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Suicide, and War

laurenparham's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.75

I think this book was just not for me—it’s informative about some key events but does little to contextualize the IRA’s actions in response to the state violence that drove The Troubles. If the goal is to explore how people become radicalized to commit political violence, I think it’s important to present that trajectory with more than a few cursory mentions of the oppression that led to it. I understand that would be a massive undertaking but anything less feels irresponsible, especially given how uneducated most Americans are about The Troubles and how, for many, a book like this would be their first introduction. There is no justification for what happened to Jean McConville, and I don’t think there has to be any whataboutism regarding that—it was tragic and violent and caused lifelong suffering and devastation for her family. But I do think that the British government and the loyalists earn some portion of the blame as an oppressive and exploitative force that perpetuated violence and radicalization. I do wonder why many people are so squeamish at the idea of interpersonal or paramilitary violence but sanction the same actions carried out by people acting on behalf of the state as somehow more valid and justified and less violent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War