“House of the Deaf”
by Lamar Herrin

            Acts of terrorism are often referred to as “senseless violence”.  The victims of violence may be innocent and the pain will be felt far away.  The goals of the perpetrators are often obscure or poorly stated.  The result is simply suffering.

            In Lamar Herrin’s new novel “House of the Deaf”, an American woman studying in Spain is killed by the Basque terrorist organization ETA.  Michelle Williamson was not a target of Basque separatists; she was merely out for a morning jog through a park in Madrid and was passing a post of the Guardia Civil, the national police force, when a bomb went off.  This part of the story is based on an actual event.

            Ben Williamson leaves his home in Kentucky to travel to Spain on an obsessive quest to make sense of his daughter’s death, and perhaps to find revenge.  It is a dangerous and a loving act, except that the Williamsons are a somewhat dysfunctional family.  Ben is divorced from his wife (who seems fixated on her career in real estate).  Their younger daughter, Annie, was never close to Michelle, who referred to her as the “spare sister”.  None seems capable of maintaining a close relationship.  However, when Ben goes to Spain, Annie spontaneously packs a bag and leaves her college (which isn’t named but bears a strong resemblance to Cornell University) to search for him.

            Ben forces himself to go to the spot in the Parque Santader where Michelle was killed.

                                              --from House of the Deaf

            But Ben remains in Spain and meets Paula Ortiz, an American who is divorced from a Spaniard who becomes his guide and lover.  When Ben decides to take off and seek out the Basque leader Armando Ordoki, both Paula and Annie trail him to a town in the Basque Country.  Annie now seems drawn to her father by mystical forces.

            The other major character in “House of the Deaf” is España.  Spain is a country that the author knows well and which he writes about with affection and detail.  Lamar Herrin is a professor of creative writing and contemporary literature at Cornell who headed Cornell’s study program in Spain.  The title of “House of the Deaf” comes from the name given by the painter Francisco de Goya to the home he occupied in his final years.  His violent paintings had become literally darker and he had lost his hearing.  As Paula explains to Ben, Goya was despairing at the end of his life, “creating all those paintings on the walls of his house in the campo.  It had a fascinating name, Quinta del Sordo – House of the Deaf Man, as if he just decided not to listen anymore to what was going on.  History would prove him right.”

Lamar Herrin’s next book, due out in July, is “Romancing Spain”, a memoir of meeting his Spanish-born wife thirty years ago.  He joins Bill Jaker on OFF THE PAGE to tell about Spain and the art of fiction, and respond to listeners’ questions.  To join in the discussion, call during the live 1:00 PM broadcast to 1-888/359-9754 or post a question below to WSKG.Radio@Gmail.com.

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