Silence Once Begun: A Novel

by Jesse Ball | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0345805526 Global Overview for this book
Registered by mathgirl40 of Waterloo, Ontario Canada on 1/14/2015
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by mathgirl40 from Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Welcome to BookCrossing! This is a site for catching and releasing books for those who want to share the joy of reading. If you find this book, please leave a journal entry to let previous readers know how and where you found the book. Feel free to do this anonymously if you wish. You are welcome to keep the book, but I encourage you to pass it on and let it continue its journey.

From the back cover:

"Over the course of several months, eight people vanish from their homes in the same Japanese town, a single playing card found on each door. Known as the “Narito Disappearances,” the crime has authorities baffled—until a confession appears on the police’s doorstep, signed by Oda Sotatsu, a thread salesman. Sotatsu is arrested, jailed, and interrogated—but he refuses to speak. Even as his parents, brother, and sister come to visit him, even as his execution looms, and even as a young woman named Jito Joo enters his cell, he maintains his vow of silence. Our narrator, a journalist named Jesse Ball, is grappling with mysteries of his own when he becomes fascinated by the case. Why did Sotatsu confess? Why won’t he speak? Who is Jito Joo? As Ball interviews Sotatsu’s family, friends, and jailers, he uncovers a complex story of heartbreak, deceit, honor, and chance."

Journal Entry 2 by mathgirl40 at Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Thursday, January 22, 2015
This book is reserved for a bookring. See details, including latest current shipping order, in this post:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/515839

Journal Entry 3 by mathgirl40 at Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Thursday, January 22, 2015
Silence Once Begun is difficult to describe. It's a creepy sort of mystery told by an unreliable narrator, mostly in the form of interviews, interspersed with lyrical reflections on truth, love and silence, as suggested by the title. The experimental form reminded me of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, though this book is much shorter and also has less of an impact, in my opinion. I can't say that I loved this book. However, I'm glad I had read it and am happy that it got included in the 2015 Tournament of Books shortlist as I'm sure it will generate interesting discussion in the competition.

Journal Entry 4 by sjt105 at Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Monday, January 26, 2015
I found the writing style of this book different but it did match the material. However, I found the book disturbing. I felt the characters glorifying their actions after the fact to justify their behaviour. I can't say that enjoyed this book either. Many disturbing books have an underlying theme that seems to justify the material. I can't say that I found the underlying theme particularly justifying in this case - I just didn't find it thought provoking in this day and age.

Journal Entry 5 by mathgirl40 at Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Thursday, January 29, 2015
Back in my hands now and ready to travel soon.

Journal Entry 6 by mathgirl40 at Waterloo, Ontario Canada on Friday, January 30, 2015

Released 9 yrs ago (1/30/2015 UTC) at Waterloo, Ontario Canada

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I've sent this book off to klaradyn. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 7 by klaradyn at Praha, Praha Czech Republic on Wednesday, March 25, 2015
It's here! Thanks, mathgirl40, I look forward to reading it.

Journal Entry 8 by klaradyn at Praha, Praha Czech Republic on Saturday, April 25, 2015
Strange, experimental, thought-provoking - I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this book. The letter from Jito Joo's point of view is heartbreakingly beautiful.

The book will now travel on to blueberry (I already have her address).

Journal Entry 9 by klaradyn at Praha, Praha Czech Republic on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (6/10/2015 UTC) at Praha, Praha Czech Republic

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Now in the mail to blue_berry

Journal Entry 10 by Blue_berry at Croydon, Greater London United Kingdom on Saturday, June 13, 2015
Received with thanks!

Journal Entry 11 by Blue_berry at Croydon, Greater London United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 17, 2015
I can't say I liked this too much because of the gimmicky style, I prefer more traditional narrative. It is obvious that the author is very talented and the story unfolds through the 'interviews' and 'statements'. I didn't like any of the characters; I disagree with their nihilism so it all left me a bit cold. That said it was a quick read and there were fascinating stories in between the main events.

Released 8 yrs ago (6/17/2015 UTC) at -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom

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Sending to the next reader in the BR. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 13 by HappyHarryBabe at Callington, Cornwall United Kingdom on Thursday, June 18, 2015
The book arrived today. :)

Journal Entry 14 by HappyHarryBabe at Callington, Cornwall United Kingdom on Monday, July 20, 2015
It was interesting, with some beautiful prose, but I just didn't like the gimmicky writing style. I know it fitted the context perfectly but it grated on me after a while. I couldn't connect with the characters at all, and as a result didn't like them. I found they were too warped in their own importance and were always trying to justify their actions.

Journal Entry 15 by HappyHarryBabe at Plympton, Devon United Kingdom on Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (7/22/2015 UTC) at Plympton, Devon United Kingdom

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Sent on to the next reader.

Journal Entry 16 by LilyKlip at Leipzig, Sachsen Germany on Monday, July 27, 2015
I somehow missed in the description that this is mainly written as an interview. Not my cup of tea - sorry...

Thank you anyway for sharing it. Will pass it on asap.

Journal Entry 17 by LilyKlip at Leipzig, Sachsen Germany on Monday, August 17, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (8/17/2015 UTC) at Leipzig, Sachsen Germany

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Sent off to the US today.

Journal Entry 18 by BookBirds at Somewhere in the USA, -- Wild Released somewhere in USA -- USA on Wednesday, October 14, 2015
It took a while to get here from Germany, but it has arrived! Thanks for sharing mathgirl40! It might get to it a couple books from now but you might want to see if there is any other interest in this one, as I'm last on the list.

Journal Entry 19 by BookBirds at Somewhere in the USA, -- Wild Released somewhere in USA -- USA on Saturday, October 24, 2015
An odd choice for the Tournament of Books last year. Maybe they chose it as the weirdie book of the year - the not-so-typical narrative style in the form of interviews written from recordings, with the interviewer having the same name as the author. In 1970s Japan a man is accused of the Narito Disappearances by signing a confession with details from the disappearances that were unknown to anyone else. But it is clear right away that this man is not guilty, yet he does not proclaim his innocence and remains in prison. The reasons are unraveled in the end. I don't want to ruin the reasons by revealing them. I think since the confession was so crucial to the narrative, it should have been included. There wasn't much included of the trial either. I would have also like to figure out the reasons for the the silence of the wife of the interviewer that inspired the interviewer to write the book about the story of the Narito Disappearances. Though I haven't read any of Jesse Ball's other books, they all seem to be little weirdies. But weirdies I will look forward to.

Thanks again for sharing mathgirl40, and I will be waiting for instructions on what to do with the book next. Hopefully someone in the US would like to read it but I probably can't get to the post office for a while anyway, so it doesn't matter if I don't have the next reader right away.

Journal Entry 20 by BookBirds at Somewhere in the USA, -- Wild Released somewhere in USA -- USA on Saturday, October 24, 2015
What a coincidence! I JUST saw mathgirl40's description of this book and I was about to read House of Leaves next!

Journal Entry 21 by BookBirds at Somewhere in the USA, -- Wild Released somewhere in USA -- USA on Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Released 8 yrs ago (2/24/2016 UTC) at Somewhere in the USA, -- Wild Released somewhere in USA -- USA

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Sent to vaga-bonde today! Thanks for sharing, mathgirl :D

Journal Entry 22 by wingvaga-bondewing at Port-au-Prince, Ouest Haiti on Saturday, March 5, 2016
Received the book yesterday. Thanks for sending it to me BookBirds.

Journal Entry 23 by wingvaga-bondewing at Port-au-Prince, Ouest Haiti on Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Released 8 yrs ago (3/24/2016 UTC) at Port-au-Prince, Ouest Haiti

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I was of two minds about this novel. I found it difficult to like the flat journalistic approach of telling the story, until the very end when everything gets resolved. I also found it frustrating to never know any more about the narrator's wife and why she stopped talking. But it was still interesting to discover this author, so no regrets.
The book is going to travel now to JudySlump612, but from Haiti it may get a while to get there.

Journal Entry 24 by JudySlump612 at Minneapolis, Minnesota USA on Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Arrived safely last night - looks quite interesting. And vaga-bonde, thanks for taking the trouble to use those lovely postal stamps!

Journal Entry 25 by JudySlump612 at Minneapolis, Minnesota USA on Thursday, June 2, 2016
As usual, I found it difficult to separate my emotional reactions of whether I liked the characters or plot (no and no), from an intellectual appreciation of whether the book achieved its literary goals. At first I didn't even think it had done that, but on re-reading the book I saw a LOT more of the ways people were manipulating, rewriting, or concealing reality, or just even just ignoring it.

Almost nobody in the book can tell a straight story. The richest example is the Oda family, who can't agree on anything. Who gets along with who? Was the daughter in Korea or Tokyo? The champion is the father, denying that he has a son named Sotatsu, or that he was ever attacked and sent to hospital, and attempting to control everything anyone else in the family says.

As for Jito Joo, she seems to be living entirely in her own cloud-like universe, uttering only cryptic metaphors. Or less. Here's a quote: "He said all this by smiling. I said all this by winking." Very infuriating.

And finally, the so-called mastermind, a towering egotist who we already know has cheated to get control of other peoples' actions. The narrator smokes him out by arranging for a reporter to publish a story about the disappearances without mentioning him. Sure enough, he writes an indignant letter because he's been left out. So he gets a forum to tell his story, including the bland self-assessment "I felt I was too important as the organizer to be the one who would be in prison."

So we arrive at what I feel is the point of the book, that it can be fatal to make decisions without fully understanding the reality. That's what the police and judicial system did here. Sato Kakuzo contrived an elaborate hoax to set them up to do that. And yet he was cruel, manipulative, and selfish in the way he did it. So I don't like him or the way he went about his project. But I think the whole thrust of the book showed that this practice of ignoring reality is something most of us do most of the time, so the conclusion is justified.

Like Book-Birds and vaga-bonde, I wanted to know the reasons the interviewers's wife stopped speaking, or at least if there was a connection to the rest of the book. Otherwise, why was it even mentioned?

Released 7 yrs ago (6/24/2016 UTC) at Precision Grind Coffee House (E. Franklin Ave & 23rd) in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

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On OBCZ shelves

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