Silent Ears, Silent Heart: A deaf man's journey through two worlds

by Blair LaCrosse, Michelle LaCrosse

According to the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 34 million Americans have a significant hearing loss; of these almost six million are profoundly deaf. Imagine living in a world where everyone around you speaks a different language, and you can't master it . . . The culture of those around you is different from your own, but you can't be a part of it . . . No matter how much you struggle to fit in, you never will. And what if this is your lot in life not by choice but by chance. How would you feel? This is the very same world into which millions of deaf persons are born, including Christopher Cline. Christopher's journey through life highlights the challenges that a deaf individual growing up in a hearing world faces on a daily basis, including the most difficult, yet most important, challenge of all gaining the acceptance and approval of one's hearing parents. Silent Ears, Silent Heart gives the reader a glimpse into the language, culture, and life of a deaf person, but it does more than that. The reader's heart becomes intertwined with Christopher's so that he or she is inspired to be empathetic toward the plight of deaf individuals.

Genres: Adult Fiction, School

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2003

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

From a deaf perspective, this is a very important book to read.

But from a writing perspective . . . this book was all over the place. Switching POV like crazy, all tell and no show, and that ending was honestly disappointing. With the right care from a creative-writer, this story could have been so much better. The details were there, but the execution was lacking.

Also, I hate Jack. If he could go fall in a hole and never get out, that'd be great.

[Hope Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible! As a person who has been signing her whole life with very close deaf friends this book captutes the essence of deaf culture and growing up deaf in a hearing world. This is a book that not only tells the story of one deaf man but of the culture and the importance of acceptance. ASL is a beautiful thing. Deafness is a beautiful thing. The deaf are successful, smart, brave, strong and are the best that they can be. This is a book that every person should read. As both a signer and a studier of ASL and the deaf culture for the past 3 years, this is a book every hearing person needs to read.

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanna preface by saying that I recognize that this book is extremely important within the context of Deaf culture. I think it conveys a somewhat faithful narrative of what a Deaf child might experience in the education system in the late mid to late 20th century. That being said, as someone who is a little bit versed in Deaf history I found this book to be a bit redundant. It's also fictional, and I feel like it tries to combine so many different Deaf experiences into one place that it fails to truly explore all the facets of the experiences and topics it presents. That could also be the fault of the writing style which was uninteresting and extremely simple.

The majority of the writing followed the formula of ___ happened and X character felt ____. The writing is essentially is all tell and no show, and that got annoying very quickly. During the more intense parts of the story, the unemotional writing really makes you wonder what you're supposed to be taking away from it. Christopher's character is very one dimensional, and the indifferent narrator really makes the narrative read as pure trauma porn. A story like this would really benefit from being written in first person, and I wish I skipped this and read an autobiography of a d/Deaf person instead. Parts of the story might be autobiographical, as the author is Deaf themself, but the story and characters feel very flat, impersonal, and unrelatable.

The plot was extremely predictable, right up until the end where the main character is killed off for virtually no narrative purpose other than to punish the other characters. It really reminded me of reading certain queer narratives, where the conclusion for queer characters trying to overcome adversity or simply just being themselves is often death. I don't think everything needs a happy ending, but in the case of this book Christopher's death felt like one last screw you to an audience who read through numerous pages of suffering.

I'm really not sure who this book is for. You could gain a similar understanding of the suffering involved in Deaf education and oppression by reading first person accounts, Deaf history and cultural books, or watching documentaries. Today, I think books like this are really losing their place in the collective public consciousness, and for good reason. I'm tired of reading books where marginalized people have to die. This book absolutely exhausted me.

[Lin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing itself was very simple and predictable but still a good look at the struggle between Deaf & hearing worlds.

[Jackie Pazera · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very simply written book but illustrates many struggles being deaf has on a family.