The Weight of Silence (book review)

Child abduction is a parent’s worst nightmare. We hear about it on the television, we read about it on the internet and even sometimes the newspapers, a form of media that is quickly becoming extinct. Writers love to turn the public’s worst fears into gripping stories, some attempts more successful than others. “The Weight of Silence” is another of those success stories, choosing the route of literary fiction and turning out one of the more affecting tales of abduction by bridging it with the tragedy, dysfunction and abuse that oftentimes goes unnoticed by those on the outside.

The novel has an interesting cast of characters, six of which voice the story with their first-person account of events (Antonia, Callie, Petra, Deputy Sheriff Louis, Ben, Martin). Seven-year old Calli Clark is the central character, her condition as a selective mute the running theme of the book. It all begins with her waking up on a sweltering August morning to her alcoholic father Griff already drunk and belligerent on the back porch, beer cans littered around his feet. Without warning, he drags her off into the woods behind their house, no one (including the reader) knowing where they are going, when they will return or what Griff, violent and unpredictable, will do to himself and/or his daughter. Her best friend Petra Gregory, who serves as Calli’s “voice”, goes missing at the same time, a manhunt ensuing that has every integral character involved repeatedly and oftentimes reluctantly veering into the past.

Through numerous beautifully transitioned flashbacks, the reader learns about Toni and Griff’s slowly imploding marriage, the extent of the physical and emotional abuse that Calli and her older brother Ben suffered at the hands of their father, the complicated history between Toni and Sheriff Louis, and the guilt Martin suffers from his faults as a husband and father. They also learn part of the reason for Calli’s muteness through a particularly jarring event when she is only four years old; the ultimate revelation is withheld until the very end when she at last divulges the words her father whispered into her ear that silenced her for three years. The plot and writing style is elegiac and suspenseful, though some astute readers may predict the culprit of Petra’s assault long before that information is revealed (the book is a bit predictable on that front). What “The Weight of Silence” has going for it the most is author Heather Gudenkauf’s astute ability to create complicated character histories, weaving them all together into an elaborate and deftly paced story, one that readers will find themselves devouring within – if time and opportunity allow them – a 24-hour period.

As always, there are pieces of the author everywhere in their stories, if one knows where to look. Gudenkauf can probably relate to Calli in a few ways - born with profound unilateral hearing loss, she wore hearing aids throughout much of her childhood, her impairment making it difficult for her to carry on conversations and form friendships (much like Calli, who employed sign language at times to communicate – Heather might well have done the same). She isolated herself through the world of books, hunkering down in an old toy chest while she absorbed stories that took her worlds away from the painfully awkward and difficult social standing that was her life. Lucky for us readers, this condition in its own curious way served as the reason Gudenkauf began writing, her love for literature and her weakened verbal interaction giving rise to her aptitude with the written word as a form of art as well as communication.

Bottom line: I can appreciate books that take their time to build interest in plot and characters, the story leisurely pouring over my mind like a nearly empty bottle of Heinz ketchup over a plate of fries. But I love it when I come across a book that hooks me within just a few pages and despite a busy day has me reading while I eat, while I cook, while I jog on the treadmill, that has me staying up into the wee hours, my eyes burning from lack of sleep and my hands aching from holding the book. “The Weight of Silence” is that cane that yanks you off the stage of your reality and onto someone else’s, forcing you to watch a show that is impossible not to applaud once the curtain closes on its final act. I hope it steals you away and brings you back breathless.