Book Review: What We Don’t Talk About

What We Don’t Talk About. James Janko, University of Wisconsin Press, 1 November 2022, Paperback and eBook, 224 pages.

Reviewed by Florence Osmund.

The setting in What We Don’t Talk About—a small, rural town in the 1960s—establishes the tone and mood for this engaging slice-of-life book. Orville, a charming, peaceful river town in Illinois, is a close-knit community of regular people where everyone knows everyone else and their business. It is one of thousands of “sundown towns” where Negroes are not welcome once the sun goes down. 

What We Don’t Talk About gives readers a glimpse into the daily lives of several teenagers—a coming-of-age story of sorts where childhood innocence is lost through personal growth and maturity. They learn where they fit in the larger world by virtue of their experiences, relationships, and inner conflict. Author Janko skillfully takes a few key events that are formative to the characters’ development and creates significant emotional beats in the narrative.

This book has no plot to speak of, but it doesn’t need one. Janko paints a picture of what living in this place and time really feels like. The story is engaging, sometimes entertaining, and other times provocative. Included are some sensitive social and cultural issues, such as religion, discrimination, and homosexuality—topics many authors steer away from to avoid missteps and/or possibly offending readers. But Janko’s tactfulness and sensitivity on the subjects result in a story that will resonate with most people.

The cast of characters in What We Don’t Talk About is diverse, interesting, and unique. Fenza gets into his share of trouble and bullies others whenever he has the opportunity. His best friend Gus is being groomed to join the priesthood one day, but his participation in Fenza’s shenanigans decreases his chances of reaching this status. Jenny catches the eyes of many boys in town but isn’t drawn to any of them as much as she’s drawn to her friend, Pat. Each character is interesting in their own right, but when they combine, dynamic scenes and engaging prose make the story even more compelling. 

Writing in third person omniscient (where the narrator knows what is going on inside everyone’s head) can be tricky and is arguably the hardest point of view to master. But Janko does an exemplary job at avoiding the common pitfalls—head-hopping, giving characters information they shouldn’t know, and creating distance between the characters and readers. What We Don’t Talk About is a well-written, well-structured novel worth the read.