About the AuthorJoanne Mazzotta is the mother of four children. She lived for them, but one of them decided to die when he was 32 years old. Why Whisper? takes you into her world and allows you to eaves drop on her life, which tells you what can happen to a family in the wake of suicide. how do you describe a book lover Why Whisper?
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. A flame that burns and illuminates at the same time.By Robert Peter ThompsonIt took me a while to complete the reading of this book. It also took me a while to start it. This is not a "who done it" kind of story. One doesn't rush to find out what happens. You know what happened in the beginning. A son commits suicide. A mother and a family are devastated. The subject is a painful one and as it touched personal aspects of my own life, I hesitated. Out of fear. Pain is not an attractive condition. Still, finally, as I knew I would, I started the journey and I am immeasurably glad that I did. I had to know. I had to know as best as a reader can, what happened in the aftermath. A suicide is a kind of bomb and after the explosion, there is a lot of smoke and debris. Choking smoke and the kind of debris that caused others to stumble. To fall. To be left trying to find their way again. Back to where they were before. But that is not possible and the author shows us that.What I found within was an incredible journey. A journey of loss, love, horror, unrelenting anguish and the prolonged torture of a loving, caring, intelligent and fine human being and the family around her which she loved. That being is the mother and the author of "Why Whisper: A Memoir" - Joanne Mazzotta. Mazzotta has much to be proud of with this book. Not only is it finely crafted, intelligent writing, it is generously peppered with dashes of well chosen colors. Some warm, some dark, some vibrant and some verging on the kind of hues one might expect only during a nightmare. A nightmare and a monster that does not dissolve simply because you have awakened. We are lead thru this nightmare by the object of the monster's most ferocious attacks, a mother. A mother, who has loved, nourished, consoled and in all ways `humanly' possible, tried to help her troubled son. Only to have all her years of doing so savagely and monstrously brutalized by the suicide of her son, her baby, her "Danny".Yet, amazingly, out of this unrelenting sorrow, self-recrimination, loathing and hopelessness comes the gift of a light. At first just a glimmer. Then a twinkling. Then, as seen through the eyes and words of the author in this starkly honest account, a steady flame: A flame that burns and illuminates at the same time.Joanne Mazzotta has provided an invaluable service to her readers. Those who have suffered a loss such as hers and those who have not. None of us knows what lies in wait just around the corner. Others are now dealing with the wreckage. In the end she understands that she has not "lost" anything. Nothing was `misplaced' as if she needs only to look harder to find it. And she cannot go back to how things used to be. But Danny is still her son. Her baby. And everything in between. What she holds in her heart. It is herself and her family that have changed. That have grown. As if in a cauldron. They had too. No one wants to grow because of something like what happened to her and her family. The choice is a stark one. One can fall or one can rise. Rise again and greet the new day with joy and wonder and yet be forever changed.As impossible as at times that might seem to be, Joanne Mazzotta, through her unrelenting honesty and forbearing, bravely holds a light to show us the way.Robert Peter ThompsonAuthor of: "Everything Happened In Vietnam: The Year of the Rat"12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. It takes courageBy Nancy MorseWhy whisper, indeed. This is a subject that should be shouted, and that is what this author does in the most courageously quiet way. She writes about the suicide of her son, Danny, without succumbing to the temptation to paint him in less-than-honest terms. She lets us know that he was good and he was not good. He was, simply, human. Her thoughtful, poignant prose takes us on her journey through grief and revelation. It takes courage to bring this subject out of the shadows. With the volume of military suicides (116 at last count so far this year), this is something that is affecting more and more of us. Whether it's due to addiction, depression or desperation, perhaps by shining a light on it as this author has done we can better understand the causes and help those who see no light at the end of the tunnel. This is an elegantly written memoir about the human soul and a mother's love that should be read by all.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Like grief itselfBy Simone BeaudelaireAccording to Sarah Wall (who quotes Ellis and Bochner), "'Autoethnography does not proceed linearly', is complex, is not conducted according to a special formula and can be likened to being sent 'into the woods without a compass'." ("An Autoethnography on learning about Autoethnography" from the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2006). In Joanne Mazotta's "Why Whisper?" This explanation comes clear. Like grief itself, the narrative wanders from past to deeper past, dragging the reader in and out of the stages of grief. The experience of reading is like the experience of grief itself. You wish for the return of hope long before hope arrives, and when it does, it is not what you expected. Darker and more visceral, the hope that emerges after the loss of someone you love twists and shapes you with all the delicacy of a blacksmith's hammer into something you never knew you were able to be. Part tribute to her lost son, part gut-wrenching howl against the unfairness of fate, part unflinching look into the intricacies of codependency, Why Whisper plumbs the depths of human experience, and yet maintains its poise and elegance. Ms. Mazotta is a gifted writer and I hope she will write again. Do I dare to hope she chooses something happier?