- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press (2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 080214165X
- ISBN-13: 978-0802141651
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.3 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,289,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written but very slow pace.,
By Pauline LeBlanc (Dieppe, NB) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Deafening (Paperback)
Canadian author Frances Itani depicts the story of Grania, an early twentieth century girl who is rendered completely deaf by scarlet fever at the age of five. The reader is eventually led to her early adult years where she marries a hearing man that shortly thereafter leaves to serve as a medic in World War I. The novel covers a very broad range of subject matters ranging from sound and silence to love and war all the way to the great flu epidemic. In my opinion, above all, Deafening is a book about overcoming adversity.I am not surprised that this novel has recieved so much acclaim. The main characters are very well developed and the content well researched. The novel truely gives an inside perspective on deafness and war. Itani's portrayal of deafness in the pre-assistive listening technology era is so vivid it is hard to believe she is not Deaf herself. Through Itani's writting, the reader enters Grania's inner world of silence and experiences its many implications. At many points during the storyline, I was left reflecting on our world of sound and how we take for granted the variety of sounds to which we are exposed to every single day. I very much enjoyed the journey through Grania's childhood and her experiences in the now antiquated boarding school for the "Deaf and Dumb". Itani was also able to vividly portray the horrors of war so as to almost make me cringe while reading. I also appreciated how she paralelled the silence as experienced by Grania and the horrible noise of war as experienced by her husband Jim and how they shared a connection through the description of their respective experiences of sound and silence. The novel however had some more disapointing points for me. It was repetitive at times and in my opinion too diffuse. I felt that a few turning points in Grania's journey were underdeveloped such as her courtship and wedding to Jim. The novel hurried through such a momentous stage in Grania's story but seemed to drag on endlessly through other less impactful points. The third section of the novel when Jim heads off to war seemed unnecessarily long and all it led up to was an abrupt and frankly disapointing conclusion. All in all, I am glad I read the book because its strong points were worth reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, but not as engaging as it could be,
By
This review is from: Deafening (Paperback)
(This review is cross-posted on LibraryThing)I was hoping to enjoy this and be moved by it more than I was in the end. It was well written and the first portion of the novel was very engaging, the characters were likeable and I found Grania's experience growing up deaf very interesting. Once the story shifted to WWI and Jim's (Grania's husband) experiences in France as a stretcher bearer, I lost my connection. I'm not sure how to describe it, the only thing I can think of is that Itani's way of writing the WWI experience didn't feel very authentic. Sometimes it felt like things cobbled together from various history books. I think I also had a hard time caring about Jim because the story doesn't really say too much about how his relationship with Grania developed before they got married and his voice never felt totally distinct from hers. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and there were several touching moments in it, but it dragged after the first third and never completely picked up again.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simply Delightful,
By
This review is from: Deafening (Hardcover)
This novel gives a wonderful, insider's view of deafness and war. Once Jim goes off to WWI, some of the chapters are told from his perspective. At first, I was disappointed by this shift, but as the war (and ultimately, the novel) drags on, I wanted to know what was happening to Jim and the boys he was working with. Itani writes wonderful, three-dimensional portraits of Grania's family, especially Mamo and Tress, Kenan, Fry, the various characters in Deserando, Jim (Grania pronounces his name as Chim), Irish (the name is ironic, considering that Grania is Irish) and even the teachers at Grania's deaf school. Though the novel drag on at moments, you will want to read it until the end.
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