Title: The Sound of Violet (10^th Anniversary Edition)

Author: Allen Wolf

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Christian Fiction

 

Twenty-four-year-old New Yorker, Shawn Lambent, is so obsessed with meeting his soulmate and getting married that he has wedding sites bookmarked on his phone and pictures of newlyweds taped up over his desk at work. But Shawn is autistic, and finding a girlfriend is proving difficult.

When he meets Violet at a party, he is convinced she is the one, unable to recognize that she is a prostitute. Violet initially views Shawn as a means to escape her life, yet tentatively, she begins to enjoy his company, despite knowing they can never have a future together.

The story begins with Shawn, who ironically works for a dating app, embarking on a series of disastrous, yet unintentionally humorous, dates. His autism affects his social skills and awareness, causing him to make blunt, tactless remarks and generally be somewhat awkward.

Wolf’s portrayal of Shawn’s neurodivergence is handled with sensitivity and nuance. He is an understandably endearing character, but Wolf is careful to imbue him with depth, and as the novel progresses, a growing recognition of how his autism affects not just himself, but also those around him.

Shawn’s naïve world-view is reflected in Wolf’s prose. Simple, straightforward, and without pretension, even when Violet’s harrowing story is unfolded in chapter twenty, it remains effortlessly readable with a lightness of tone.

Additionally, given Wolf’s background in film, the narrative possesses a visual appeal and a screenwriterly gloss. Each chapter reads like a set-piece scene, and his use of New York, especially at night, is intensely filmic.

Violet’s life could not appear more different from that of Shawn’s, which is comfortable in many respects. However, the abuse and trauma she has suffered lead her to exhibit similar behavioral traits to Shawn, including emotional detachment and paralysis.

Wolf intriguingly builds up the layers of contrast between their respective lives while subtly developing these burgeoning points of commonality. His considered treatment of their individualities and unusual elements in both protagonists’ histories ensures that a fundamentally well-trodden story is given originality and interest.

He gently utilizes Shawn’s condition to nicely toy with the reader’s expectations, affording a high level of dramatic irony that leads to some achingly poignant and often amusing misunderstandings and bewilderment.

This degree of situational knowledge in respect of Violet also extends to Shawn’s grandmother, Ruth, and brother, Colin. Both perceive the true nature of Violet’s work and are scathingly judgmental.

Neither Ruth nor Colin are particularly likable and are slightly underdeveloped, viewing Shawn more as a problem to be managed rather than trying to understand him. Notwithstanding, this garners some sharply satisfying conflicts for the reader and gentle comeuppances for the characters concerned.

Nonetheless, The Sound of Violet celebrates the transformative power of unconditional love and acceptance, and Wolf gifts all his cast varying degrees of awakening in this respect, even those who appeared beyond redemption.

Violet does occasionally brush against certain stereotypes, more so at the beginning. Further, the narrative seems only half-invested in its romantic possibilities, and Violet’s feelings for Shawn in the closing stages stop short of being fully convincing.

The chemistry could have been stronger between them. Although the novel is not concerned with conventional passion, it would have benefited from a brighter glow of attraction between the two, despite their issues and flaws. However, it’s entirely possible that the theme of healing through Christianity, which gently dominates the latter half of the novel, may have sat awkwardly alongside overt romance.

Sweet, funny, and painfully touching, The Sound of Violet is a captivating story that navigates challenging and weighty topics through a deceptively well-constructed and layered narrative, managing to be both thought-provoking and heartwarming.

 

 

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