Paul Rowe. The Silent Time.
Sharon Pajka-West1 THE SILENT TIME, BY PAUL ROWE, is a charming novel that introduces readers to Leona Walsh, a young woman raised in Three Brooks, Newfoundland in the early 1900s. At 17 years old, Leona endures more than many contemporary readers can imagine. For as long as she remembers, her mother has been dead and she has been raised and tormented by her drunken father and pesky brothers. Although she cleans, gardens, and cooks for her family, she must forfeit her place at the table for the unruly men all while being taunted and teased. It is actually a stuck teapot lid that leads her to her freedom and her future husband, Paddy Merrigan. Described as a "short, stout, impish" man, Paddy has a knack for fixing teapot lids, among other things, and possesses the quality of not giving up on anyone, including an old cat Leona considers dead. After bringing the cat back to life, Paddy and Leona have a brief courtship where Paddy promises to take her away to Knock Harbour on the island of Cape Shore. Once there, he promises that neither the shore, nor he will ever hurt her.
2 Within days of the proposal, Leona is treated as a princess by her new "sisters" and marries Paddy in a church wedding that is held inside of a school house. During the ceremony she promises to be his wife and she also promises her future children that they, unlike her, will be educated. By 1904, the happily married couple is raising three young sons when a shipwreck changes their lives forever. Leona, convinced that she can quickly and secretly board the wrecked ship and collect goods for their home, escapes the sinking schooner with a cardboard case and a small seaman’s chest. The "lucky find" opens Pandora’s Box which ends the few happy years they have enjoyed. This time, Paddy’s ability to heal and never give up on anyone does not save his family. Leona is left alone and under investigation by Arthur Duke, the Deputy Colonial Secretary to the Prime Minister of Newfoundland.
3 Twenty years pass and a politician campaigning for election visits Knock Harbour and learns of a deaf child named Dulcie. Her existence is as much of a mystery as her mother’s. After living secluded as a "madwoman" from neighbors and becoming a bootlegger, Leona’s only companionship was her daughter. Dulcie’s father is considered another one of Leona’s secrets. The politician, William Cantwell, having his own regrets and secrets, makes young Dulcie’s education his highest priority. However, he must first convince Leona to allow her daughter to attend the School for the Deaf in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she would live for ten months of the year. The politician must also convince the government to pay for such an expense while Arthur Duke, still angry with Leona regarding the shipwreck’s missing treasure, creates obstacles.
4 Although Dulcie is not the main character, her storyline guides the entire novel, including the early connection between Leona and her daughter and the way they communicate through home signs. Once Dulcie leaves for Halifax and learns to read and write, the stamps which Leona affixes to her letters reveal other mysteries. Nevertheless, the secrecy of Leona’s past and the distance do not interfere with the mother and daughter bond. Leona takes comfort in honouring the promise she made on her wedding day; her daughter is being educated.
5 Dulcie is a believable character who loves Knock Harbour but acknowledges that Halifax, with friends and teachers with whom she can easily communicate, has become her new home. In the end, Leona’s secrets are revealed but it is Dulcie who ultimately discovers a means to her own future.
6 Newfoundland’s financial ordeals are also apparent throughout the novel. By the 1930s, the nation is about to surrender its independence to resolve such problems. While it begins to enter its own silent time, Leona and Dulcie’s period of silence has ended.
7 Rowe tackles poignant issues concerning the education of deaf children. The speech teacher and Principal Batstone were both educated at the Braidwood Institute which supported oral methods of education, while Batstone’s wife, Claire, is an advocate of the use of sign language and having a deaf teacher on staff. She reads books by the Abbé de L’Epeé, an advocate for sign language and even believes in Dulcie’s potential to become the school’s first deaf teacher once she has finished high school and has attended "Gaudillet College in Boston." Rowe clearly researched the history of deaf people and deaf education; however, while he incorporates historical references such as the Braidwood Institute and the Abbé de L’Epeé, a Deaf Education pioneer known as "the father of the deaf," I am unsure why Rowe includes the fictitious "Gaudillet College in Boston" instead of the actual Gallaudet College in Washington, DC which was established in 1864 and would have accepted deaf women as students during Dulcie’s time.
8 This rich, multilayered story has a strong sense of place in Newfoundland and a compelling plot that reads much like a play. Rowe excels at creating dynamic and believable characters with intriguing relationships. As a reader, I became emotionally invested in the outcomes of each character. While this is the author’s debut novel, it is certainly one of the finest works that I have read.