The Silentiary

Critics have likened di Benedetto both to Borges and to Kafka. I get the comparisons, but this work did little to impress me and left me generally underwhelmed. The Silentiary relates to a man's quest for silence in a world where he is continually beset by noise. Similar to Joseph K., et al., he is oppressed by a system he neither understands nor is able to master. The end is not pleasant. Some have read The Silentiary as a critique of Latin American bureaucracy and a warning against brutal dictatorships. The events described begin as semi-plausible and then descend into the increasingly far-fetched and less rational. Perhaps this is what madness in the face of an impenetrable force does. I found it mostly tiresome. To the charity shop.

By Antonio di Benedetto