Song Without Words (A Merloyd Lawrence Book) - Softcover

Antonia Fraser, author of "My Life with Harold Pinter""A brilliant window into the largely unknown world of the partially deaf: riveting to read, and illuminating at every level." Louis Begley, author of "About Schmidt""Fascinating, heartbreaking, heroic, and relentlessly riveting.""Kirkus Reviews, "1/15/13"The moving, poignant account of how a brilliant lawyer came to terms with the midlife discovery of his own partial deafness...The book is a powerful expression of loss, acceptance and the very human need to communicate. Shea's narrative derives its true power from the eloquence and intelligence with which he illuminates a world that may be unfamiliar to many readers." David Lodge, author of "Deaf Sentence: A Novel"""Song Without Words "is [an] incredible story . . . . Gerald Shea . . . tells it with eloquence, wit, and the narrative drive of a good novel. It is a unique contribution to the growing literature about deafness, one which will illuminate the experience of fellow-sufferers, and deepen understanding in society at large." "Boston Globe," 2/22/13"Both a work of literary art and a manual for understanding the difficult world Shea inhabits...Readers are lucky that Shea took the time to write this masterful memoir, which brings us into a hidden world so few have ever visited. Song without Words proves that memoir, at its lyrical best, can be a truly wonderful and inspirational literary genre.""Charleston Post and Courier," 2/10/13 "Shea's determination allows him to manage his impairment with remarkable success, and readers will be surprised at how it escaped the attention of his parents, brothers, friends, and teachers." "Washington Post," 3/3"[A] brilliant and thoroughly engaging, if often painful, account...Throughout "Song Without Words," the author candidly describes his dark, even catastrophic moments of perceived failure--failure to hear, failure to understand and interpret correctly, failure to connect, fai

Much has been written about the profoundly deaf, but the lives of the nearly 30 million partially deaf people in the United States today remain hidden. Gerald Shea's witty and candid memoir of how he compensated--through sheer determination and an amazing ability to translate the melody of vowels--brings fascinating new insight into the nature and significance of language, the meaning of deafness, the fierce controversy between advocates of signing versus those who favor oral education, and the longing for full communication that unites us all.