In the haunting, beautifully told stories of Sign Languages, James Hannah depicts a very real world in which people face the limitations of language as they seek communion with one another. On a cross-country car trip, a father realizes he does not have the words to talk to the six-year-old daughter he scarcely knows. A serial killer, trapped within the spiraling deterioration of his own mind, expresses him self with savage violence. Lost in the woods, Charles emerges at a rural farmhouse where he discovers fellowship without the benefit of words in "Sign Language." An ancient recluse tells his story in the brilliant, bittersweet "Histoire de mon temps," recalling his ritual of gleaning the roadside and constructing his life from the abandoned objects of others. Whether urban professionals or societal outcasts, Hannah's characters are as real as your neighbor next door. They are people you know and people you hope never to meet. But in every instance, Hannah reveals the threads that link them to one another and to us. Though words often fail, we do find ourselves connected - by devotion, by mutual need, sometimes by love. In the unforgettable stories of Sign Languages, James Hannah eloquently relates the severe and simple truth of our lives: that in a stark, sometimes violent world, we can find redemption.
What do You think about Sign Languages: Stories (1993)?
