Review of IT HAPPENED IN SILENCE by Karla M. Jay

 3 Stars

This historical novel, set in Georgia in 1921, has three first-person narrators.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Stewart is mute and so communicates by writing.  She leaves her Appalachian homestead tasked with finding a preacher to bury her baby brother but she also wants to find her oldest brother Briar to convince him to come home.  Thus begins a journey that takes her much further than planned with more than one misadventure.  The second narrator is twenty-year-old Briar Stewart.  Serving a sentence in penal servitude, he wants to do nothing to jeopardize his freedom in four months.  When he encounters an immigrant boy in dire straits, he risks that freedom by trying to help.  Ardith Dobbs, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is the third narrator.  Though she hides secrets about her past, she is proud of and open about her involvement with an organization, the Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK).  Eventually events bring together these three characters. 

There is considerable suspense, especially concerning Willow.  She encounters unscrupulous people and people who claim to have her best interests in mind but disregard her wishes.  More than once she is in considerable danger.  Briar also finds himself in danger several times because Taggert, the work gang supervisor, is a cruel and unpredictable person who rules the workers with an iron fist. 

What I found most interesting is the information about the Women of the Ku Klux Klan.  I had not known about this group which held many of the same political and social ideas of the KKK.  The women of the WKKK in the novel support the KKK by reporting behaviour that is at odds with their extreme racist and intolerant views.  Ardith repeats the vow she took to become a member:  “I pay attention.  I report.  . . .  We are against northerners, blacks, Jews, schoolteachers, Catholics, Mormons, labor radicals, immigrants, bootleggers, theatre owners, dance hall operators, and feminists.” 

Some of Ardith’s beliefs will make the reader more than a bit uncomfortable, and that’s the point.  She believes that “the excessive mortality rates in the American Negro were not due to their daily conditions of life but was an inherent racial trait” and “Colored gals can tolerate pain better than white women.  I mean, everyone knows that.”  She celebrates the unjust laws which punish a white woman for miscegenation:  “Thanks to the civilized laws of our land, her mother is confined to an insane asylum in Virginia for having relations with a blackie.”  Though a black woman is raped by a white man, Ardith blames the woman, asserting that she is sexually promiscuous. 

Willow is the most engaging character.  Because she is mute, people tend to underestimate her intelligence.  She is a kind person whose love of family motivates her.  Briar, despite his missteps in life and his “protective shell,” is much like his sister.  Other characters, however, are not realistic; they tend to be totally good or totally evil.  Taggart and Ardith, for example, seem to have no redeeming qualities, whereas Ilya has nary a flaw. 

There are several examples of plot contrivance.   There are coincidences where characters come together at convenient times; several characters manage to make unlikely escapes; and there is a deus ex machina rescue.  The ending also stretches credulity.  Are we to take Taggert’s fate seriously?  And was the suggestion of romance really needed? 

In terms of style, it is the many country comparisons or “corny sayings” that stand out:  “as heartless as a chicken gizzard” and “Prettier than a mess of fried catfish” and “She was the freshness in the air after a fast-moving rainstorm.  The sugar in the rhubarb pie” and “crazier than an outhouse fly” and “useless as the H in ghost.” 

In the Author’s Note, there are explanatory notes and non-fiction reading suggestions for subjects which appear in the novel:  the WKKK, baby farms, chain gangs, and hobos.  It is obvious that the author did considerable research and her intention to give voice to those “silenced through fear, injustice, or discrimination” is admirable, but plot contrivance and unrealistic characterization weaken the quality of the book. 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.