I am not certain that this wasn't a good book, but at the very least, I, personally, was not in the right state of mind to read it. I felt like it had so much potential: an original story, an exciting setting, some very clever and poignant symbolism and resounding themes.Sadly, I was just never really hooked. I never felt engaged in this novel. I am not sure if that is due in part to an inability to connect to the characters. I had some interest in Jim and occasionally in our heroine, though I often found her stories to be tedious and dull. I have found, when reading novels that are set during war times in which some sections are told from 'at home' and 'over there' the stories of the characters who are away in battle are the most engrossing, leaving the tales of those who have been left behind to feel often a tad trivial. I did enjoy some parts of the exploration of Grania's struggles with her inability to hear. Itani seems to mirror some of Grania's struggles with those of Jim, who is away at war working as a medic. I just wanted this one to be done. I powered through the entire thing in hopes that it was bound to pick up, but it only plodded along slowly, leaving me uninterested in the fates of the characters. I felt so unattached to this one that I was willing to leave it behind on my vacation as a donation to the hotel 'library' in the lobby. Certainly not a rave review, but at least it is likely to be better reading than the romance novels with worn covers and dogeared pages that made up the collection in the hotel's lobby.
A gem of a book. Despite the fact that the two main characters are lovers whose lives are interrupted by World War I, this book is so much more than a war story or a love story, though it is also very profoundly both of those things. We meet Grania when she is five and just recovering from a bout of scarlet fever which has made her lose her hearing. Itani illuminates Grania’s inner life and relates Grania’s keen observations of the world as she perceives it, observations gained without being able to hear people’s voices or the sound of storms or oceans or birds. Grania and Jim, or Chim as she interprets his name, have a brief but beautiful time together before the war intrudes. Then the story becomes two solitudes, and from the constant noise and confusion of war, Jim learns even more about his wife’s world of silence. Grania’s grandmother, Mamo, and her sister, Tress, are two of the characters who shape and sustain her, both of them stand-outs in a large cast of well-drawn and believable characters. I had already met Tress and her husband, Kenan, in the pages of Tell - didn’t realize until too late that these books had overlapping characters and some time overlap, and I probably should have read them in reverse order. I had already met Grania and Jim as well, so I knew the end of their story before I knew the beginning. But none of that mattered. I was thoroughly engossed by the story, by the language, and by the perceptions that had nothing to do with language.
What do You think about Deafening (2004)?
This book is about a girl who became deaf after getting sick as a child. I thought the parts that talked about what life was like for her were really interesting, but the rest was a snooze fest. It kept switching between her story and what was going on with her husband who was at war. I don't know if it was because I read the e-book, but there were parts with the contents of a letter, but it was hard to tell that we were switching from the narrative to the letter. Maybe it was more clear in the physical book. I thought this had the potential to be a good book especially as it started out well, but I really struggled to finish it.
—Jane
I read this book for one of my first year history Classes, an I must say I was pleasently surprised. I liked the formulation of the characters, and how it seemed like a borderline non-fiction book. It was fairly slow paced, in my opinion, but it was captivating enough to keep you going to the end. Overall, I thought the main character was interesting, and I liked the romance involved, as well as the flashing between perspectives, but I found myself skimming through the main characters perspective to get back to the war scenes -- clearly a history major! I liked it. It was different than what I usually read. It was very touching, and really well told. I also liked the fact that it was a Canadian story, that hit close to home. Extremely relatable, even though I was not alive during the war.
—Shannon Larsen
A very unusual World War I story, told through the eyes of a young deaf woman named Grania. Poignant, well-told, powerful. Very enjoyable.FAVOURITE QUOTE: “If only he did not have to look at the hands. In death they told more than the face; he knew that now. It was the hands that revealed the final argument: clenched in anger, relaxed in acquiescence, seized in a posture of surprise or forgiveness, or taken unawares. Clawing at a chest, or raised unnaturally in a pleading attitude. How can this be? My life, pulling away?” [p. 204]
—Donna
