Review: A Humorous and Sensitive Look at an Often Overlooked Disability.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2014
Juliet Mann is a stammerer. Situations that may be uncomfortable or even frightening for us--reading aloud in class, making a public presentation--are torture for Juliet, who cannot even pronounce her own name without difficulty. In spite of her disability, Juliet has managed to carve out a comfy, if circumscribed, life for herself. She's even getting married.And that's where things go haywire.Juliet tries to speak her vows and things do not go well. Horrified, humiliated, she runs off. Her family, though caring, is at their wits end with her. Her intended, a great guy, is desperate to try again. But Juliet is paralyzed, caught between her yearning to be "normal" and her fear of trying and failing to correct her speech problem.Joanne Phillips does a wonderful job with Juliet. She's sympathetic but not pathetic. We feel for her, but we clearly see her shortcomings and how she makes her situation harder than it has to be through stubbornness. It's true that, upon hearing her speak, people make assumptions about her intellect and general value. But she also makes assumptions. So sure everyone will judge her harshly, she doesn't give them chance to know her better and discover how fine a person she is.For such a short work, THE SILENCE OF JULIET MANN is perfectly paced. Its tight narrative arc packs a lot of emotional punch without teetering into melodrama. The physical settings have a clarity and weight that many full-length novels struggle to achieve. The underlying message, that stammering is not merely an awkward stage of development for certain unlucky children, that it needs to be attended to early and seriously, comes across in a natural non-dogmatic way.Joanne Phillips has a warm, funny voice and style. I'm definitely planning to read more of her work.