Lies of Silence

by Brian Moore

Book Overview

This volume is part of a series of novels, plays and stories at GCSE/Key Stage 4 level, designed to meet the needs of the National Curriculum syllabus. Each text includes an introduction, pre-reading... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385415141
• ISBN13: 9780385415149
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Length: 197 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Deadliest Sin

Moore was a first-rate writer in the Graham Greene mode who failed to engage the interest of the literati and is slowly fading away as a result. "Lies of Silence" is as good an example as any as to why he deserves better. The theme is sloth, the unwillingness to spiritually engage with anything that matters. Moore takes a typical disoriented, rootless modern type and places him in a situation where he *must* engage, then ruthlessly portrays the consequences of his failure. Moore's inference that our inability to deal decisively with terrorism is directly related to the contemporary spiritual vacuum was years ahead of its time, and is not going to lose its pertinence any time soon.Other outstanding works by Moore include "The Doctor's Wife", "The Mangan Inheritance", and "Black Robe".

Thrilling to the end

Lies of silence is a really thrilling story about a hotel manager, Micheal Dillon who has to choose between the life of his wife and that of about a hundred other people. What will he do?Brian Moore is a terrific writer, he describes everything in such a detailed way, you can almost feel the wind in your face as Micheal is walking around. The book gives you a lot of background information about the troubles in Northern Ireland and is written in such a way that you are drawn immidiatelly into it. The best thing about this story is that it makes you think: What would I do if I had to make these choices, would you do the same as Micheal?

one of the most underrated and unread great authors

I wanted the book to read like a thriller, but to be something more, I didn't want to do a whole book about Northern Ireland, but I did want to talk about how often ordinary people are taken as hostages, their homes invaded - and the moral choices they're forced to make. I go back to Ireland often and no one ever talks about the hostages. We're in a position now where any of us could be hostages and that can create the dilemma of loyalty to family versus saving the lives of others. -Brian Moore, NY Times InterviewWhen Michael Dillon's mistress is offered a job in London, he is finally forced into a series of difficult decisions : to leave his insecure, bulimic wife; to request a transfer from his Belfast hotel manager's job; to finally flee an Ireland which he loathes. But, that night, after he has been unable to confront his wife with his decision, IRA gunmen break into their home. They hold her hostage and demand that he park his explosives laden car opposite a dining room in the hotel where a prominent Ulster Unionist clergyman will be speaking. Dillon finds himself on the horns of an appalling moral dilemma : do as the terrorists say and blow up dozens of friends, coworkers and other innocents; or alert the police and risk getting his unloved wife killed. His eventual choice sets in motion a chain of events which will require subsequent, intertwining moral choices and which can not end happily. In a century which gave us a near infinitude of horrifying statements and sentiments, I've always found the following, from E. M. Forster, to be the most disturbing : If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.The monstrous selfishness of this remark, gussied up in the guise of loyalty, is a fitting epitaph for an era that lionized the Hollywood Ten and vilified Linda Tripp. All too few authors and other intellectuals were willing to seriously question the full implications of such an attitude; Brian Moore is the exception. Combining elements of everything from The Desperate Hours to The Informer to The Heart of the Matter, Moore explores a series of moral questions, and manages to do so in the midst of a compulsively readable thriller. One of the most insipid canards going, accepted even by conservatives who should know better, is that the Left produces all of the great literature. As we look back on the 20th Century, it seems increasingly evident that it is the small group of writers on the Right, many of them Catholic, who actually produced the Century's most important and enduring body of work, among them : T. S. Eliot; George Orwell; Evelyn Waugh; J.R.R. Tolkein; C. S. Lewis; Flannery O'Connor; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; Andre Dubus; Frederick Buechner; Tom Wolfe; and Brian Moore. (Even Graham Greene, who--when both were alive--referred to Moore as his "favorite living writer," was at his unintentional b

Trapped between two impossibilities!

This story is set in the socio-political turmoil of Northern Ireland. However, it is not about the political issues, but about a very personal dilemma. The main character of this novel is poised on the verge of leaving his wife for another woman - leaving his homeland, family, and job as well. The night he plans to break it to his wife, they are held hostage by political terrorists who threaten to kill his wife unless he bombs the hotel which he himself manages. His responsibility for the safety of his hotel staff and guests comes up smack against his guilt at the impending abandonment of his wife, and responsibility for her safety. He is trapped, trying to decide what is the "right" thing to do. Love, guilt, terror, responsibility, and rage against a moral blackmail form the tortuous emotional landscape of this novel. A driving read.