Raging Silence
Amanda Stone
Synergy Books

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Amanda Stone’s "Raging Silence" opens one morning, November 1964. Melena Dupree Starling is nineteen, standing on the front porch of an old log cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. Ernest Starling, Melena’s young husband is on his way down the mountain where he will have lunch and attend a Ranger’s meeting. Their baby, Blackwell, is inside the house.

With this introduction we have met three of the central players in this drama which will trace the lives of all three, plus those of Blackwell’s siblings and into the generations that follow theirs.

Melena has high hopes that her marriage and family are going to be long lived, filled with love and much happiness.

As time continues more children are added to the growing family including another son Luke and a daughter Elizabeth. An undercurrent begins to form in Melena’s happy plans, Ernest is non attentive due in part because he is driven to establish himself as a successful businessman whose is beginning a family dynasty to pass down to sons, and due in part because he is not faithful to his marriage vows.

Melena's anger driven inventory of Ernest's transgressions both the real and those which are suspected along with her irritation and disenchantment with her situation, her children, and her husband continue to increase over time.

Ernest and Melena separate amongst recrimination decide not to see it to the end, set about to maintain their marriage at least for keeping a good image for family and society.

Family dysfunction continues, until several years following their initial decision to divorce, and now filled with so much anger, hatred and inability to curb their behavior the pair finally divorce. And the dysfunction continues.

Over the years Melena, her children and Ernest too continue lives which often swirl pretty much out of control, until at last as they deal with those life altering, predictable changes that accompany divorce, but also maturation and life itself; the family members make changes of their own. Some of these changes are positive, some are not. Some changes are revenge, dysfunction, or maturation driven and all are vagaries of life as is experienced by all living humans who do not remain static, but do face life and become well, bitter or otherwise different.

Writer Stone has set down a disquieting narrative that investigates how the statistic that in the US; half of all marriages can be expected to end in divorce, and in some parts of the country the statistic is even higher, included in this dynamic is the realization that most of those divorces will take place and uproot the lives of children. A second discouraging statistic addressed by Stone; that someone is assaulted in the US every 3 or so minutes, is interwoven into the narrative as Stone delineates how these two elements singly or together serve to tear families apart and destroy lives.

Raging Silence is not an easy little frothy type read. It is a sequence of events beginning with heart felt hopes and aspirations, treachery and duplicity, and secrets. The secrets are frequently hidden in the silence often found in families who cannot or will not face reality and present to the world the behaviors and actions which they deem proper or right or pleasing to others.

A work of fiction based in large part in actual happenings, "Raging Silence" addresses major social issues and accomplishes the goal to share a touching family account. While I found the work to be disturbing at times, it is a tale that is written in a readable manner, presents insight into some of the problems facing so many today and can perhaps serve to aid others in gaining an understanding of these problems.

Happy to recommend Amanda Stone’s "Raging Silence" for those who enjoy a slice of life type work and especially for therapists, teachers who do face the product, children, of these dysfunctional family groups, and others who may work with children or adults in a therapy type setting. A work for the high school, college and public library shelf, "Raging Silence" is not a book for a lazy afternoon but is a worthwhile peek into what lies behind the dysfunction so prevalent today.