[Grammar] ... none of them would be so silent.

[constantinusphilo]

This is a sentence from Hanya Yanagihara’s award-winning novel A Little Life:

For a while they all sipped at their drinks, and none of them looked at the other, and he tried to pretend that this was just a normal evening, although if it had been a normal evening, none of them would be so silent.

I am not sure I understand why she uses 'would be' instead of 'would have been'.

According to Randolph Quirk, the past subjunctive is backshifted when there is a change in time reference, p. 1031.

 

[Rover_KE]

Re: ... none of them would be so silent.l

I have changed your thread title.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

***

Please note that I used Edit Post to move your afterthought to your OP.

You could have done that.

 

[Tdol]

It wan't a normal evening, so any imaginary evening would have come before this one. The author is not looking forward, but backward.

 

[5jj]

According to Randolph Quirk, the past subjunctive is backshifted when there is a change in time reference, p. 1031.

Quirk is talking about indirect speech on that page.

 

[constantinusphilo]

This is implied indirect speech. It delivers the thought of the main character in the scene referred to by 'he'. Anyway, the phrase does not sound natural to me. I think the author ( and the editor) are just sloppy. Or there must be some satisfactory explanation.

 

[slevlife]

It sounds literary. I don't think it sounds sloppy at all. I haven't read the book, but I'm guessing the author is breaking the rules to steer their readers' attention back to the silence in the moment and away from the hypothetical they gave.

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist” is a quote attributed to Pablo Picasso, and I think it applies here.

 

[Tdol]

Many critics said the book was sloppily written at the time.