Deafening (original 2003; edição 2004)

A puff of air, an aroma or a movement in the corner of her eye - these are the signals that something is happening around her. For Grania (Graw - née - a) is deaf as a result of a bout with scarlet fever when she was a child.

Grania has a protective mother (who feels guilty for her daughter's deafness), and a loving grandmother and sister who help her. She is sheltered until she is nine, when it is was apparent that she needed schooling. She is sent to the Ontario School for the Deaf 20 miles away. She thrives there, meets her best friend, Fry, and her love, Jim. When WWI intervenes the lives of everyone, including Grania, are turned upside down.

Set in Canada as well as World War I France Deafening is well-researched, with insights into what it might be like to live without sound. ( )

The amount of research that went into this novel is obvious from the beginning: Frances Itani is meticulous in trying to accurately portray the smallest details of the lives of her characters. The story is moving - cataloguing the damage caused by the First World War to the lives of the characters and describing the difficulties faced by a deaf person in a hearing world. ( )

Una entrañable novela sobre la familia y el amor en tiempos difíciles. Frances Itani ha compuesto una espléndida alegoría en torno a la sordera, en la que la minusvalía física de su protagonista da pie a la sordera metafórica que afecta a todos los que, debido a las duras experiencias de la vida, se van aislando del mundo exterior.A principios del siglo XX, en un pequeño pueblo canadiense , la desgracia cae sobre una familia de origen irlandés cuando la pequeña Grania se queda sorda tras haber enfermado de escarlatina. Agnes, su madre, hace todo lo posible para que su hija reciba una educación normal, pero Grania sólo obtiene muestras de rechazo y crueldad en el colegio. A los nueve años, ingresa en una escuela para sordomudos en Belleville y a la desgracia de estar alejada del su familia se une la del diagnóstico del médico: su sordera es total y definitiva. Años más tarde, y convertida ya en una eficiente enfermera, Grania conoce a Jim, el alegre ayudante del doctor Whalen. Pero cuando Grania se casa y cree que por fin ha alcanzado la felicidad, Jim es llamado a filas para luchar en la Primera Guerra Mundial. ( )

Itani masterfully describes the world of a deaf person - Grania - and how her family deals with her deafness. The second half of the book is partially from Grania's husband, Jim's point of view while he is at war (WWI) and is particularly graphic. Not for the squeamish reader. ( )

Hard for me to give a star rating as I skimmed the whole of the book after Grania and Jim got married. I found the part I read properly mildly interesting and it was a pleasure to read of a deaf child being sent away to a special school and settling in and doing well there and learning to sign and speak. Jim seemed quite sweet, but he was a bit of a surprise as we had skipped over most of Grania's teenage years.

After that it turned into a WWI novel, a genre I find too upsetting to read any more, so I skimmed it to the end. The friend who lent it to me loves this novel, but she is a braver reader than me. I wish we had found out how Jim and Grania's marriage fared after his return. ( )