This memoir was beautiful, insightful, and inspiring. The author shares everyday moments of her life in the kind of detail that guides to appreciation of the "small moments" being the true joy of life. Wild-Menozzi presents an excellent reminder of the beauty that can be found in all the many different silences of a lifetime.
Many thanks to Net Galley for a digital ARC of Silence and Silences.

A collection of essays on the titular topics. But, like many collections, it’s hit and miss with the essays and as a whole, it doesn’t quite come together for me.

Reading this book, Silence and Silences, has made me more aware now that silence is not always golden. There can be quiet, peaceful, pleasantness and goodness but on the other hand, overwhelming nuances of solemn silences. Silences of holding back the many hurts, physical and/or emotional: violent injustices and injuries perpetuated upon people who then tend silent vigil -- too staggering to speak of.

I feel this is a good book to teach one to be more silent, to listen, instead of creating noise in ones own life; to assess silences in nature and of peoples around me. Silences to stop and ponder the brevity of life, or just to cogitate. I was encouraged by the courage of those the author wrote of who had temerity to break their silences, not in screaming, ranting or self-piting monologues, but in the form of magnificient art exhibits, poetry and writing, and so on. I think we all need to put aside our distractions as the author suggests, minimized them at least, and step back and consider the silences. Conservatively asserting here, I think that is some of what the author, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi is sincerely hoping for.

Again, I feel I cannot capture the deeper essence of this book well; it's the kind where I'd say one must read and glean for oneself because the author, of course, says it best and different folks will have different perspectives. Some of the stories related throughout the book can be shocking in the truth of the amount of depravity in this world. Someone had to say it, and Wilde-Menozzi has spoken. We must listen to the sound of the silences she reveals and learn from them all.

~Eunice C., October 2021~

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the review copy sent by the publisher.

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