Reviews for A Perfect Silence

The average rating for A Perfect Silence based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-27 00:00:00 William Timmerman From my book review blog: www.addbookreviews.blogspot.com Reason for reading? I had to read this book for a Women's Literature class at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Unlike most Woman's Literature courses, this class was focused mostly on the literature of different ethnic groups (We read a lot from the Latino/a Canon.) and more modern novels. This book is about a woman named Blanca and begins by discussing darkness and suicide. This book "got me in fifty pages"; actually it got me on the first page! While the ideas expressed throughout the novel are pretty dark, Ambert does a really great job displaying several feminist concepts. While I don't personally consider myself a feminist, I could see many feminist theories in this novel, especially focused on the perspective of a woman from the Dominican Republic and living within third space feminism. In addition to these theories of feminism, Ambert also gives an intriguing view of the woman acting as the patriarch with the grandmother character, Paquita. For you linear/organized readers, beware, this is not a linear novel. This book works cyclically through different time periods in Blanca's life, and switches from present to past quite often. Personally, as long as I can understand what the author is talking about and where we are in time, I enjoy these types of novels. The ending of this novel was surprising, in my opinion. Many people in the Women's Literature class were not pleased by the ending, but I've had mixed emotions; the more I think about it, the more I'm "okay" with the ending. Would I read this in my free time? No. My main reason for not reading this book in my free time would be the content. Although it was interesting and I didn't have trouble staying focused on the story, a lot of the reading was really hard to get through. There are several scenes of abuse throughout the novel and some very "dark" times for the character of Blanca. If you're interested in applying feminist theories to a novel, especially focused on woman from the Dominican Republic, I'd recommend this book for you! If not, it may be not a good pick.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-12-15 00:00:00 Marvin Pierre Honestly, this book was so incredibly depressing I wish it hadn't been my first read of 2011. It was well written, poetic even... but I almost wanted to commit myself after reading it. I'm sure how to rate it. I guess if you enjoy a story that quite possibly involves every single traumatic event that could ever occur all happening to one woman throughout her sad, lonely life than this is the book for you. I won't spoil the book by telling you whether or not she does go through with the suicide, but I will warn you that by then end you may just wish she does, so you can put an end to the misery of reading about her life.