On a Quiet Street

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of addiction, violence, and domestic abuse. The text also contains offensive language about mental health conditions, which the guide replicates in quotation only.

On a Quiet Street explores different dimensions of forms of control in abusive relationships. Lucas, Finn, and Caleb use violence, threats, and criticism to control and manipulate the women in their lives. The novel conveys that patriarchal structures and cultures of silence allow forms of control to escalate and that there is no typical profile of someone who is abused.

The primary abusive relationship in On a Quiet Street is that between Lucas and Nicola. Lucas fully controls every aspect of Nicola’s life. He uses surveillance devices to monitor her activities, locks her in the basement some evenings, and limits her contact with the outside world. This regime of control is enforced with violence and threats of violence. The text makes it clear that the abuse gradually increased until Nicola was entirely trapped. They were already married the first time he was violent with her “and he pushed his thumb into my throat so hard I saw stars and blacked out” (91). Glass uses graphic language to highlight the terror of the violence.