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Σιωπή ανάμεσα στα όπλα
Λοιπόν: δικαιολογούμαι απέναντι στην κόρη μου, στην Ειρήνη, στον ίδιο μου τον εαυτό. Κι αποτολμώντας αυτό, εκθέτω εμένα τον ίδιο σε κίνδυνο. Το ξέρω πως σ' όλη μου τη ζωή έπαιρνα κάθε τόσο ξαφνικές κι ανόητες αποφάσεις, στο άψε σβήσε, τελείως αντίθετο με τις συνήθειές μου. Από μίαν άποψη είναι μέρος της πρόληψής μου αυτό, μάλλον: οι δυνάμεις που κυβερνούν, αν πράγματι κυβερνούν, την καλοτυχία και την κακοτυχία μας, τηνε χρειάζονται πότε πότε, αυτή την περίεργη και αντικανονική πράξη των δημιουργημάτων τους, για να τους Θυμίζει πως ναι, είμαστε δημιουργήματα με ορισμένα αντιφατικά χαρακτηριστικά, και, αν έχουν την καλοσύνη, ας μην εξακολουθούν να μας μεταχειρίζονται σαν να μην είμαστε παρά έμψυχή ιδιοκτησία κανενός κτηνοτρόφου, κανένα κοπάδι ιτου συνουσιάζεται και αφοδεύει! Δεν φτιάξαμε εμείς τους εαυτούς μας αλλά είμαστε έτσι φτιαγμένοι που έχουμε κάποιαν αξιοπρέπεια, ακόμα και οι πιο γελοίοι ανάμεσά μας έχουμε κάποια ζεστασιά που πηγάζει από παλιά, απο τον πυρσό του Προμηθέα (είχε γραφτεί ένα έργο για αυτόν, αν και δεν θα ήταν ταιριαστό, δεν Θα ήταν ασφαλές, να το ανεβάσω στο θέατρό μου αυτή την περίοδο, όχι, οπωσδήποτε όχι). Από μίαν άλλη άποψη οι αποφάσεις μου, έτσι αυθαίρετες και αντιφατικές που είναι όλες τους, πρέπει να σχετίζονται με το επάγγελμα μου. Την Κωμωδία. Αυτή χρειάζεται μίαν αδιάκοπη σειρά απο ανατροπές των προσδοκιών χρειάζεται μιαν αδιάκοπη αίσθηση καλά προσχεδιασμένων ατυχών συγκυριών. Αν πέτυχα καθόλου στην τέχνη μου, τότε πρέπει να μου δόθηκε η αίσθηση αυτή. Δεν υπάρχει αμφιβολία πως μου κατέβηκε να αρχίσω να γράφω αυτές τις αναμνήσεις σαν αστείο σχεδίασμα πλοκής, για να δώσω λίγο ποικιλία στην αναμενόμενη τελευταία πράξη tης ζωής μου. Ποιος θα είναι εκεί για να χειροκροτήσει;
Τα τριακοστά πέμπτα γενέθλια του Αλαβάστρινου ήταν στα 91 π.Χ.
Η Ειρήνη έγραφε το γράμμα της στον Μιθριδάτη στα 81 π.Χ.
Τα γεγονότα της κύριος αφήγησης συμβαίνουν ανάμεσα στα χρόνια αυτά,
Τα τριακοστά πέμπτα γενέθλια του Αλαβάστρινου ήταν στα 91 π.Χ.
Η Ειρήνη έγραφε το γράμμα της στον Μιθριδάτη στα 81 π.Χ.
Τα γεγονότα της κύριος αφήγησης συμβαίνουν ανάμεσα στα χρόνια αυτά,
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
3 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
John Arden
90 books8 followersOne of the most important of the British playwrights to emerge in the mid-20th century. His plays mix poetry and songs with colloquial speech in a boldly theatrical manner and involve strong conflicts purposely left unresolved.
Arden grew up in the industrial town of Barnsley, the character of which he captured in his play The Workhouse Donkey (1963). He studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and at Edinburgh College of Art, where fellow students performed his comedy All Fall Down (1955), about the construction of a railway. He continued to write plays while working as an architectural assistant from 1955 to 1957. His first play to be produced professionally was a radio drama, The Life of Man (1956). Waters of Babylon (1957), a play with a roguish but unjudged central character, revealed a moral ambiguity that troubled critics and audiences. His next play, Live Like Pigs (1958), was set on a housing estate. This was followed by his best-known work, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance (1959), set in a colliery town in 1860–80. Both plays caused controversy.
In 1957 Arden married Margaretta D’Arcy, an actress and playwright, with whom he wrote a number of stage pieces and improvisational works for amateur and student players. The Happy Haven, produced in 1960 in London, is a sardonic farce about an old people’s home. The Workhouse Donkey is a crowded, exuberant, and comic drama of municipal politics. Armstrong’s Last Goodnight (1964) is a drama set in the Borders region of Scotland in the 1530s and written in Lowland Scottish vernacular. Left-Handed Liberty (1965), written to mark the 750th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, characteristically dwells on the failure of the document to achieve liberty. His writing became more politically committed, as evidenced in the two radio plays The Bagman (1972) and Pearl (1978). Later plays—The Non-Stop Connolly Cycle (1975), a six-part drama based on the life of the Irish patriot James Connolly, as well as the Arthurian drama The Island of the Mighty (1972), Vandaleur’s Folly (1978), and The Little Gray Home in the West (1982), among others—were written with D’Arcy. Arden’s fiction includes the novel Silence Among the Weapons (1982; also published as Vox Pop) and the story collection The Stealing Steps (2003).
At his death, he was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s".
Arden grew up in the industrial town of Barnsley, the character of which he captured in his play The Workhouse Donkey (1963). He studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and at Edinburgh College of Art, where fellow students performed his comedy All Fall Down (1955), about the construction of a railway. He continued to write plays while working as an architectural assistant from 1955 to 1957. His first play to be produced professionally was a radio drama, The Life of Man (1956). Waters of Babylon (1957), a play with a roguish but unjudged central character, revealed a moral ambiguity that troubled critics and audiences. His next play, Live Like Pigs (1958), was set on a housing estate. This was followed by his best-known work, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance (1959), set in a colliery town in 1860–80. Both plays caused controversy.
In 1957 Arden married Margaretta D’Arcy, an actress and playwright, with whom he wrote a number of stage pieces and improvisational works for amateur and student players. The Happy Haven, produced in 1960 in London, is a sardonic farce about an old people’s home. The Workhouse Donkey is a crowded, exuberant, and comic drama of municipal politics. Armstrong’s Last Goodnight (1964) is a drama set in the Borders region of Scotland in the 1530s and written in Lowland Scottish vernacular. Left-Handed Liberty (1965), written to mark the 750th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, characteristically dwells on the failure of the document to achieve liberty. His writing became more politically committed, as evidenced in the two radio plays The Bagman (1972) and Pearl (1978). Later plays—The Non-Stop Connolly Cycle (1975), a six-part drama based on the life of the Irish patriot James Connolly, as well as the Arthurian drama The Island of the Mighty (1972), Vandaleur’s Folly (1978), and The Little Gray Home in the West (1982), among others—were written with D’Arcy. Arden’s fiction includes the novel Silence Among the Weapons (1982; also published as Vox Pop) and the story collection The Stealing Steps (2003).
At his death, he was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s".
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 12, 2013
Certainly an unusual novel and one I enjoyed! It is set against the background of the waning of the Roman Republic in the first century BC. Sulla, Marius, and Cinna fight the Roman civil wars for political supremacy. The Social War in South Italy is fought against Rome for the rights of the tribes living there. Ivory, a former actor and theatrical agent writes his memoirs during Sulla's purges. He uses pseudonyms, for everyone's protection. For the three Roman combatants, the English translation of their names or nicknames are given--The Stain, The Mule-Driver and Ashes. This novel concerns a comedy theatre troupe and their adventures. The narrator calls himself Ivory, since his specialty is playing women's roles, wearing a white mask.
As a young lad, Ivory runs away from his home in Paphlagonia and joins a theatre troupe. He becomes an actor, but he is injured in a fall. He remains part of the company. He becomes an agent and still acts within his limited capability. The story is the troupe's adventures and journeys--from Ephesus to different parts of Italy--one Ivory calls "Walls of Love" [another pseudonym], Samnium, Lucania, Ostia, with the final destination being Pontus, near Persia, the territory of King Mithradates [here called King Strychnine; he is a notorious poisoner]. Ivory is also kidnapped by pirates, endures their life, and escapes, despite a bad hip.
Any description of theatre life was very vivid and taught me painlessly about the theatre of those days. It took me awhile to get used to the pseudonyms; but once I did, the story just flowed. Ivory finally becomes, besides theatre manager, a playwright. The writing was very good, and you could guess the writer was mainly a playwright. Is it possible he put some of himself into Ivory?
The novel is divided into four parts, just like four acts of a play. The dialogue was excellent and very natural. The author used modern theatre slang, e.g., greenroom. For some of the lower-class characters he used Anglo-Indian slang. I liked how the author worked in the excerpts from ancient Greek plays. I didn't like the bawdiness, but that of a novel written thirty years ago was very tame compared to the novels of today.Descriptions except that of the theatrical life were pale. Character development was weak on the whole. I did like Irene, a strong female character and a member of the troupe, Ivory's former mistress, and Horsefury, a Celt from Eriu [Ireland]. To me there was no "feel" of ancient Rome. In my opinion, the quality of writing, the theatre descriptions, and dialogue made up for any shortcomings. NOTE: The above is the UK title; I read this novel with the US title: Vox pop.
Recommended for those who want a painless description of the Roman theatre in novel form, set against historical events.
As a young lad, Ivory runs away from his home in Paphlagonia and joins a theatre troupe. He becomes an actor, but he is injured in a fall. He remains part of the company. He becomes an agent and still acts within his limited capability. The story is the troupe's adventures and journeys--from Ephesus to different parts of Italy--one Ivory calls "Walls of Love" [another pseudonym], Samnium, Lucania, Ostia, with the final destination being Pontus, near Persia, the territory of King Mithradates [here called King Strychnine; he is a notorious poisoner]. Ivory is also kidnapped by pirates, endures their life, and escapes, despite a bad hip.
Any description of theatre life was very vivid and taught me painlessly about the theatre of those days. It took me awhile to get used to the pseudonyms; but once I did, the story just flowed. Ivory finally becomes, besides theatre manager, a playwright. The writing was very good, and you could guess the writer was mainly a playwright. Is it possible he put some of himself into Ivory?
The novel is divided into four parts, just like four acts of a play. The dialogue was excellent and very natural. The author used modern theatre slang, e.g., greenroom. For some of the lower-class characters he used Anglo-Indian slang. I liked how the author worked in the excerpts from ancient Greek plays. I didn't like the bawdiness, but that of a novel written thirty years ago was very tame compared to the novels of today.Descriptions except that of the theatrical life were pale. Character development was weak on the whole. I did like Irene, a strong female character and a member of the troupe, Ivory's former mistress, and Horsefury, a Celt from Eriu [Ireland]. To me there was no "feel" of ancient Rome. In my opinion, the quality of writing, the theatre descriptions, and dialogue made up for any shortcomings. NOTE: The above is the UK title; I read this novel with the US title: Vox pop.
Recommended for those who want a painless description of the Roman theatre in novel form, set against historical events.
May 31, 2013
It is twenty years or so since I read this book, but I could not leave a novel of this quality without a review. If you get a chance to buy this book, snap it up. Arden, better known as playwright or political agitator, has produced a gem of a novel.
The setting is the Roman Republic in the years 90-80 BC or thereabouts and the fatal conflict between the factions of Marius and Sulla, culminating in the legalised murders known as the Proscriptions. The story is told by a crippled actor turned stage director, called Ivory, who becomes swept up in the mayhem of civil war. The narrative is wonderfully picaresque, the dialogue as inventive as you might expect from such an accomplished dramatist, the action often extremely funny, the ultimate lesson sobering. Participants are presented by their nicknames (Sulla is the Stain after his blemished face, Marius, the Muledriver, presumably from his army reforms, Mithridates of Pontus, Old Strychnine, a good joke). The approach is resolutely anti-imperialist, as might be expected from this author, the characterisation more than convincing. There is a huge cast: actors, informers, spies, soldiers, politicians, rogues, dancers and prostitutes - many combining a number of roles. Most of the characters are from the subject races, Cuttlefish, a Nubian slave girl, Ivory himself, the Hellenised Paphlagonian son of an Arab tax collector, and most interestingly, HorseFury, a Cimbrian warrior first enslaved by Marius, then the instrument of Marius' vengeance on his enemies in the senate. Then there are the men who tear the world apart, the angry and crazed old soldier, Marius the Mule-Driver, and the cold, cruel Sulla, his stained face, sophisticated and aloof, with his love of theatre and an icy passion for retribution.
The title? Here are the opening words of the novel: "His exact words...the blood fouled old general, seven times consul, Gaius Marius the Mule-driver, staggering in the last malodorous days of his last term of office...'Inter arma leges silent': 'Once the weapons are out, the laws fall silent'. And, by god so they do."
The setting is the Roman Republic in the years 90-80 BC or thereabouts and the fatal conflict between the factions of Marius and Sulla, culminating in the legalised murders known as the Proscriptions. The story is told by a crippled actor turned stage director, called Ivory, who becomes swept up in the mayhem of civil war. The narrative is wonderfully picaresque, the dialogue as inventive as you might expect from such an accomplished dramatist, the action often extremely funny, the ultimate lesson sobering. Participants are presented by their nicknames (Sulla is the Stain after his blemished face, Marius, the Muledriver, presumably from his army reforms, Mithridates of Pontus, Old Strychnine, a good joke). The approach is resolutely anti-imperialist, as might be expected from this author, the characterisation more than convincing. There is a huge cast: actors, informers, spies, soldiers, politicians, rogues, dancers and prostitutes - many combining a number of roles. Most of the characters are from the subject races, Cuttlefish, a Nubian slave girl, Ivory himself, the Hellenised Paphlagonian son of an Arab tax collector, and most interestingly, HorseFury, a Cimbrian warrior first enslaved by Marius, then the instrument of Marius' vengeance on his enemies in the senate. Then there are the men who tear the world apart, the angry and crazed old soldier, Marius the Mule-Driver, and the cold, cruel Sulla, his stained face, sophisticated and aloof, with his love of theatre and an icy passion for retribution.
The title? Here are the opening words of the novel: "His exact words...the blood fouled old general, seven times consul, Gaius Marius the Mule-driver, staggering in the last malodorous days of his last term of office...'Inter arma leges silent': 'Once the weapons are out, the laws fall silent'. And, by god so they do."
April 29, 2025
3.5 stars. An historical fiction novel set around the Mediterranean between BC91 and 81 about the adventures and life of Ivory, an actor’s agent and sometimes entertainer. He finds himself in love with his black Ethiopian servant and caught up in the politics of domination by rivals, the generals. Camus Marius and Sulla. Ivory, for two years, is on a pirate ship raiding the Italian coastal towns. Ivory finds his life threatened on a number of occasions. He witnesses many violent deaths.
An engaging, entertaining read with some interesting characters. Lots happen over the ten years.
This book was shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize.
An engaging, entertaining read with some interesting characters. Lots happen over the ten years.
This book was shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize.
January 15, 2014
Probably one of the best historic novels written about ancient ROme.
This novel goes by the title "Vox Pop: Last Days of the Roman Republic" when published in the U.S. The title "Silence Among the Weapons" was used for European publications. I thoroughly enjoyed it for its combination of history, setting in theater, and splendid dialogue and wit. Though entertaining, this work also touches the spirit, mixing mirth with desolation and the sense of hollowness that only war can impress upon you.
The book flap calls the novel 'picaresque' which I learnt means that there is a bit of lewd behaviour, but by today's standard is barely adult.
John Arden was known as a playwright and this book comes across as a four act play.
The first book introduces you to the character Ivory who is an actor turned theater agent who finds himself embroiled in some nasty politics between two rival Roman parties whilst in Ephesus around 90 BC. (I visited Ephesus in 1996 - a wonderful archaeological and tourist site.)
The second book takes you into southern Italy as Ivory tries to navigate the unrest rising throughout the countryside with his acting troupe. His companions are disbursed as chaos fills the land and concludes this book. (I also spent some time in the 'boot' of Itay - Arden aptly paints mayhem in this idyllic land).
Book three almost feels like a return to 'Moby Dick' as Ivory boards a crude little pirate ship of ancient Jews - his old life is gone and almost forsaken.
Finally the fourth book brings Ivory to the outskirts of Rome and perilously close to the Roman generals fighting the quasi civil war. The story ends up being tragi-comic, as despite the success of our hero, so much pain has been endured that you can't quite feel like anyone has triumphed.
This novel goes by the title "Vox Pop: Last Days of the Roman Republic" when published in the U.S. The title "Silence Among the Weapons" was used for European publications. I thoroughly enjoyed it for its combination of history, setting in theater, and splendid dialogue and wit. Though entertaining, this work also touches the spirit, mixing mirth with desolation and the sense of hollowness that only war can impress upon you.
The book flap calls the novel 'picaresque' which I learnt means that there is a bit of lewd behaviour, but by today's standard is barely adult.
John Arden was known as a playwright and this book comes across as a four act play.
The first book introduces you to the character Ivory who is an actor turned theater agent who finds himself embroiled in some nasty politics between two rival Roman parties whilst in Ephesus around 90 BC. (I visited Ephesus in 1996 - a wonderful archaeological and tourist site.)
The second book takes you into southern Italy as Ivory tries to navigate the unrest rising throughout the countryside with his acting troupe. His companions are disbursed as chaos fills the land and concludes this book. (I also spent some time in the 'boot' of Itay - Arden aptly paints mayhem in this idyllic land).
Book three almost feels like a return to 'Moby Dick' as Ivory boards a crude little pirate ship of ancient Jews - his old life is gone and almost forsaken.
Finally the fourth book brings Ivory to the outskirts of Rome and perilously close to the Roman generals fighting the quasi civil war. The story ends up being tragi-comic, as despite the success of our hero, so much pain has been endured that you can't quite feel like anyone has triumphed.
December 23, 2016
Historical fiction with a great sense of presentness (achieved by strategic anachronism), witty writing, real women and an unheroic lead. Theatre life, violent politics and a cast of every ethnicity caught up by Rome.
September 22, 2022
SUMMARY - Stodgy fare, like a pale raisin-studded flatbread that lacks real character. Ambitious yes, but Holland, Unsworth and Renault do different yet similar things so much better.
____________________________
Arden's Empire tales call to mind several comparisons. My impatience with the story might be due to its King Rollo-like two dimensionality. For all his craftiness and Shakespearian disfigurement, Ivory is no Richard III. I found him flat, and little more than a round emptiness to convey the plot along through city backstreet, aloft above mountain passes, and on piratical high seas. Cardboard cutout King Rollo would have managed infinitely more human drama, and at least brought some colour to proceedings.
A comparison with Tom Holland's non-fiction 'Rubicon' suggests just how compelling this could have been, had the machinations of tribal Sulla and Gaius Marius attained a similar pitch. Holland's work of history (albeit later) is much more dramatic, whereas Arden's pages gathered a leadenness with every episode. Sulla and Mithradates leap from the page of Holland's masterful history, which admittedly sets a high bar for sheer compulsive readability. In contrast, Arden offers little more than piercing steely gazes and capriciously deadly changes in mood. Sulla, 'Mule-Driver', 'Ashes' and even the comic-book assassin 'Horsefury' hover just above the risible.
Dispassionately, I might have scored this higher. The range is impressive, spanning a decade, and much of the Mediterranean amphitheatre (Persia, modern-day Turkey, Greece, Italy and Carthage). So too, the book leads off beautifully with a meditation on the suspension of legal rule once weaponry is wheeled out. The metaphor is sustained, with layered lives from the most beggarly jobbing actors caught in the crosshairs of war, to the king's and rulers that wage them. It earns its keep in the canon of Booker-winners on the horrors of war... exemplified by another 1982 nominee (and winner), Thomas Keneally's 'Schindler's Ark'.
Unlike Keneally, though, whose prose carries searing poignancy, Arden felt more am dram. The characters left me cold (Irene and to a lesser extent, Cuttlefish, notwithstanding). Without people that mattered to weave things together, the admirable geographic range just felt disjointed, as another sphere of a saga going nowhere, beyond what could be as easily summed up by the four words of its title.
There are two more comparisons I would make. Firstly, Barry Unsworth's 'Pascali's Island' (shortlisted for the Booker 1980), whose rotund Turkish scribe Basil Pascali could have been the fully formed human, of which Ivory was the palest shadow. The second is another Booker-nominated offering from ten years earlier, Mary Renault's 'Fires from Heaven' (1969, shortlisted 1970). The looked at Alexander the Great and for historic fiction is closer in period than Unsworth's, and if I thought it less successful in many respects, it still managed strong sexual chemistry. Pascali is the self-serving underdog Turkish protagonist and chronicler that Ivory's two-dimensionality never attains; and Renault's erotic visions if not entirely perfect, surpass what Arden manages.
Arden by all accounts is an unfairly-forgotten playwright, and perhaps I am being unfair on a novel that maintained its theme, dealt with an ambitious history, and contains some memorably good lines. The description of 'Ashes' sat in a theatre with eyes like holes punched in a paper bag was just one arresting descriptive flourish. The raisins of his eyes, though, like dried fruit in a bland bread, were not enough to make this dense book entirely palatable. I read it through without too much pain, but compared to Holland, Unsworth and Renault, this was stodge.
____________________________
Arden's Empire tales call to mind several comparisons. My impatience with the story might be due to its King Rollo-like two dimensionality. For all his craftiness and Shakespearian disfigurement, Ivory is no Richard III. I found him flat, and little more than a round emptiness to convey the plot along through city backstreet, aloft above mountain passes, and on piratical high seas. Cardboard cutout King Rollo would have managed infinitely more human drama, and at least brought some colour to proceedings.
A comparison with Tom Holland's non-fiction 'Rubicon' suggests just how compelling this could have been, had the machinations of tribal Sulla and Gaius Marius attained a similar pitch. Holland's work of history (albeit later) is much more dramatic, whereas Arden's pages gathered a leadenness with every episode. Sulla and Mithradates leap from the page of Holland's masterful history, which admittedly sets a high bar for sheer compulsive readability. In contrast, Arden offers little more than piercing steely gazes and capriciously deadly changes in mood. Sulla, 'Mule-Driver', 'Ashes' and even the comic-book assassin 'Horsefury' hover just above the risible.
Dispassionately, I might have scored this higher. The range is impressive, spanning a decade, and much of the Mediterranean amphitheatre (Persia, modern-day Turkey, Greece, Italy and Carthage). So too, the book leads off beautifully with a meditation on the suspension of legal rule once weaponry is wheeled out. The metaphor is sustained, with layered lives from the most beggarly jobbing actors caught in the crosshairs of war, to the king's and rulers that wage them. It earns its keep in the canon of Booker-winners on the horrors of war... exemplified by another 1982 nominee (and winner), Thomas Keneally's 'Schindler's Ark'.
Unlike Keneally, though, whose prose carries searing poignancy, Arden felt more am dram. The characters left me cold (Irene and to a lesser extent, Cuttlefish, notwithstanding). Without people that mattered to weave things together, the admirable geographic range just felt disjointed, as another sphere of a saga going nowhere, beyond what could be as easily summed up by the four words of its title.
There are two more comparisons I would make. Firstly, Barry Unsworth's 'Pascali's Island' (shortlisted for the Booker 1980), whose rotund Turkish scribe Basil Pascali could have been the fully formed human, of which Ivory was the palest shadow. The second is another Booker-nominated offering from ten years earlier, Mary Renault's 'Fires from Heaven' (1969, shortlisted 1970). The looked at Alexander the Great and for historic fiction is closer in period than Unsworth's, and if I thought it less successful in many respects, it still managed strong sexual chemistry. Pascali is the self-serving underdog Turkish protagonist and chronicler that Ivory's two-dimensionality never attains; and Renault's erotic visions if not entirely perfect, surpass what Arden manages.
Arden by all accounts is an unfairly-forgotten playwright, and perhaps I am being unfair on a novel that maintained its theme, dealt with an ambitious history, and contains some memorably good lines. The description of 'Ashes' sat in a theatre with eyes like holes punched in a paper bag was just one arresting descriptive flourish. The raisins of his eyes, though, like dried fruit in a bland bread, were not enough to make this dense book entirely palatable. I read it through without too much pain, but compared to Holland, Unsworth and Renault, this was stodge.
July 28, 2019
'Once the weapons are out, the laws fall silent,' exclaims the ruthless general Caius Marius, who with rival Lucius Sulla is ravaging the Roman republic in bloody civil war.
The period, between 91 and 81BC, is dominated by conflicts abroad fomented by King Mithridates of Asia Minor and at home by the rebellion of tribes of many ethnicities against central control from Rome.
Alliances and loyalties shift repeatedly in this fast-changing and insecure world, as the narrator Ivory - named for the white face mask in which he used to appear as an actor - is drawn unwillingly into the role of double agent as a result of a plot that blows up in his face. Soon he himself no longer knows who he is working for, concerned only to stay alive.
This is typical Arden territory, of duplicity and moral ambiguity, of survival and struggle against imperialism. It was the playwright's first novel, split into a four-act structure, and with dialogue that is incisive, workaday and meaningful, even when characters drift into delirium.
There are insights too into the mechanics of the classical Greek dramas with which Ivory and his touring troupe are associated, and interesting contrasts with the butchery of the Civic Games favoured by the ascendant Roman armies.
Elsewhere, however, as Jane notes in her excellent review below, one doesn't get a sense of real life, unless as represented here it was besotted with carnal sex.
Irene and Cuttlefish, Ivory's loves, actress/prostitutes, are themselves like contrasting characters of Greek drama; Iris, strong-willed, perfectly capable of outmaneouvring the menfolk, a subtle schemer somehow able to charm her way into the beds of opposing potentates; Cuttlefish the African ex-slave, with mystical vision
Yet both remain elusive characters in a maelstrom of savagery and upheaval.
Arden could hardly have chosen a more difficult period in which to set this literally rambling tale, in which the only unity is to be found in the journal of its deeply compromised narrator.
The politics were confused, he was confused, and I was at times deeply confused. I would have appreciated greater clarity to understand the confusion.
The period, between 91 and 81BC, is dominated by conflicts abroad fomented by King Mithridates of Asia Minor and at home by the rebellion of tribes of many ethnicities against central control from Rome.
Alliances and loyalties shift repeatedly in this fast-changing and insecure world, as the narrator Ivory - named for the white face mask in which he used to appear as an actor - is drawn unwillingly into the role of double agent as a result of a plot that blows up in his face. Soon he himself no longer knows who he is working for, concerned only to stay alive.
This is typical Arden territory, of duplicity and moral ambiguity, of survival and struggle against imperialism. It was the playwright's first novel, split into a four-act structure, and with dialogue that is incisive, workaday and meaningful, even when characters drift into delirium.
There are insights too into the mechanics of the classical Greek dramas with which Ivory and his touring troupe are associated, and interesting contrasts with the butchery of the Civic Games favoured by the ascendant Roman armies.
Elsewhere, however, as Jane notes in her excellent review below, one doesn't get a sense of real life, unless as represented here it was besotted with carnal sex.
Irene and Cuttlefish, Ivory's loves, actress/prostitutes, are themselves like contrasting characters of Greek drama; Iris, strong-willed, perfectly capable of outmaneouvring the menfolk, a subtle schemer somehow able to charm her way into the beds of opposing potentates; Cuttlefish the African ex-slave, with mystical vision
Yet both remain elusive characters in a maelstrom of savagery and upheaval.
Arden could hardly have chosen a more difficult period in which to set this literally rambling tale, in which the only unity is to be found in the journal of its deeply compromised narrator.
The politics were confused, he was confused, and I was at times deeply confused. I would have appreciated greater clarity to understand the confusion.
January 20, 2018
I find the reading about the barbarity of humanity in the face of the breakdown in law and order to be depressing reading and this book is not different but his Ivory character does sort of rise above it and give you someone to hope in.
June 16, 2023
91-81 πχ. Ελλάδα, Ιταλία. Γίνεται πόλεμος. Ένας θεατρινος μπλέκει με τα πολιτικά και εξορίζεται από τον τόπο του για να επιβιώσει. Τα περισσότερα δεν τα καταλαβα. Ασυναρτησίες. Ένας κακογραμμένο βιβλίο.
December 9, 2010
I finished Silence Among the Weapons a few days ago. It was a good read, although not nearly as consistant as An Ice-cream War. Really got bogged down in the middle. I will give it 3 stars. In the middle I was quite sure it would not rise above 2 stars, but it finished strong. The main thing that gives An Ice-cream War the edge over Silence is believe-ability and a clear consistant plot. I don't expect complete realism in a novel, but holy cow!
Spoiler alert! I can't explain further without giving things away.
The idea that Ivory, Irene and their various assistants in the theatre would become involved in so many events and happen to be in the right place at the right time is just obsurd. Irene being able to pull off sleeping with the three major military generals of the known world? Nobody is that lucky and atractive, no matter how cunning. She remains loyal to Strychnine the whole time. And nobody figures this out? Her asistant is an invinceable warrior who ends up being the personal gaurd and saving the life of mule-drivers. Even though he hates him and wants to kill him for Irene, but doesn't for no good reason. Horsefury is entirely too skilled a fighter to be believeable. And how does Cuttlefish become the fortune teller for Mule-Driver?
My real issue though is with Ivory. He was way too weak a main charictor when he was in the shadow of Irene and Cuttlefish. I would like to see this story rewriten from Irene's perspective. The novel gained some strength when he got out from under their control. Then the strong part of the novel was plagued by crazy connections. Ivory gets captured by pirates that just happen to remember him from their Ephesus escape and then the pirates just happen to be in the right place to help Mule-Driver. Later he comes to Lanuvium destitute and just happens to find Roscius.
And those are just the biggest convenient happenings.
Don't even get me started on the notched penny people. Here's an idea. Take a penny, hammer, sharp object and make your own dammed notched penny. And if these notched penny people are everywhere and everybody knows about them and wants to be part of them, why can't they take over the world?
I did find it interesting where this fits in history. Several hundred years after the Democratic Spartins, Thermopilia etc. And just 100 years before Jesus. As well as all the overt sexuality and violence as part of every day life. There were a lot of compeling stories in this book and I fear my review focuses mainly on the negative. In the end it was certainly worth reading. Especially, if you can suspend reality more than I.
Spoiler alert! I can't explain further without giving things away.
The idea that Ivory, Irene and their various assistants in the theatre would become involved in so many events and happen to be in the right place at the right time is just obsurd. Irene being able to pull off sleeping with the three major military generals of the known world? Nobody is that lucky and atractive, no matter how cunning. She remains loyal to Strychnine the whole time. And nobody figures this out? Her asistant is an invinceable warrior who ends up being the personal gaurd and saving the life of mule-drivers. Even though he hates him and wants to kill him for Irene, but doesn't for no good reason. Horsefury is entirely too skilled a fighter to be believeable. And how does Cuttlefish become the fortune teller for Mule-Driver?
My real issue though is with Ivory. He was way too weak a main charictor when he was in the shadow of Irene and Cuttlefish. I would like to see this story rewriten from Irene's perspective. The novel gained some strength when he got out from under their control. Then the strong part of the novel was plagued by crazy connections. Ivory gets captured by pirates that just happen to remember him from their Ephesus escape and then the pirates just happen to be in the right place to help Mule-Driver. Later he comes to Lanuvium destitute and just happens to find Roscius.
And those are just the biggest convenient happenings.
Don't even get me started on the notched penny people. Here's an idea. Take a penny, hammer, sharp object and make your own dammed notched penny. And if these notched penny people are everywhere and everybody knows about them and wants to be part of them, why can't they take over the world?
I did find it interesting where this fits in history. Several hundred years after the Democratic Spartins, Thermopilia etc. And just 100 years before Jesus. As well as all the overt sexuality and violence as part of every day life. There were a lot of compeling stories in this book and I fear my review focuses mainly on the negative. In the end it was certainly worth reading. Especially, if you can suspend reality more than I.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2010
More like 3.5 stars. A one-of-a-kind novel that blends the farcical with the horrific, Silence Among the Weapons is a kind of Keystone Cops meets Catch-22, set 80-90 years before the birth of Christ and studded with tragedies and gore. The forever swapping and shifting allegiances of its political movers and shakers (its chief madcap element) proved, in the end, more wearisome than it need have been, and the novel's often gorgeous prose and moving central relationships suffered as a result. Still, though, a good -- at times very good -- and undeservedly forgotten Booker Prize-finalist.
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July 21, 2010(En español)
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