Book Club on Zoom: No Visible Bruises

We would like to return to the postponed discussion of No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know about Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachael Louise Snyder. This extraordinary book captivates and raises awareness about a global health problem of epidemic proportion.

In the excellent review of No Visible Bruises in The New York Times, Parul Sehgal writes: “In America alone, more than half of all murdered women are killed by a current or former partner. Domestic violence cuts across lines of class, race and religion… Between 2000 and 2006, 3,200 American soldiers were killed in combat. During that same period, in the United States, more than three times as many women died at the hands of their husbands and boyfriends.

This book, winner of the prestigious J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award, takes apart the myths that surround domestic violence, many of which Snyder herself once believed … Books that want to raise an alarm don't always aspire to literature, but to be effective—to persuade—they must be literary; they must be obsessed with matters of rhythm, form and language…[Snyder] brings all of fiction's techniques to this new book—canny pacing, an eye for the animating detail and bursts of quick, confident characterization. There is a fullness and density to every one of her subjects…This is a writer using every tool at her disposal to make this story come alive, to make it matter.” .

                https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/books/review-no-visible-bruises-domestic-violence-rachel-louise-snyder.html?searchResultPosition=6

Readers might also be interested in the campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence:  https://16dayscampaign.org

This is an annual international campaign that kicks off on November 25,  International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until December 10, Human Rights Day. The dates for the campaign were chosen to link violence against women and human rights and emphasize that gender-based violence against women is a violation of human rights. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University.

In tandem, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s launched the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign in 2008. UniTE is a multi-year global effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls around the world.

The 2020 UNiTE Campaign Theme is "Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!". Around the world a host of public events will galvanize public attention and iconic buildings will be lit in orange, including (hopefully as in 2019) several landmarks in Hamburg. The color orange is a key tool unifying all activities to bring global attention to the initiative.

Don something orange and join us for a discussion of No Visible Bruises! 

Please sign up for this event on this website; a Zoom link will be sent to you before the meeting.