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| Deaf Sentence, a novel by David Lodge, Viking Penguin Group 2008. Hardcover. |
For Desmond Bates, retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
He’s bored. He resents the obligatory monthly calls to his cantankerous and half-deaf elderly father in London. His wife’s retail business is taking off at the same time his academic career is quietly and unimpressively winding down, which is a bit galling. To top it off, the once self-assured linguistics professor is also losing his hearing.
Reading the title, one might assume British author David Lodge’s book, Deaf Sentence, is a sort of über-attorney legal thriller, where the prosecution, through crack research and analysis, accurately
convicts the deaf defendant whom everyone else assumed couldn’t possibly have “dunnit.” But Bates
is no über-lawyer. He’s a frustrated academic who can no longer distinguish between the words
“death” and “deaf ” - a sad irony for a linguistics expert. Bates’ course is uncomfortably predictable.
Or is it? A young and attractive doctoral student cracks through Bates’ shell at a party one evening. Amusingly, he spends 15 minutes talking to her without understanding a single word of the conversation: his hearing aids cannot help him distinguish between the background noise and her voice. But this woman resurfaces weeks later and, to his surprise, Bates finds himself a reluctant advisor in the development of her thesis. Before long, the staid professor is worried: “She is
either totally irresponsible or mentally unbalanced, or perhaps both, and I deeply regret that I ever got involved with her.” Is this mysterious woman a deceptive, conniving psychopath who is using him
to advance her academic career, or is she perhaps just the kick in the pants that Bates needs to get out of his retirement funk?
Deaf Sentence switches from the first person to third person frequently,depending on the “author’s”
mood. As a college professor, Bates possesses the ability to sit back and observe as the teacher, but can’t help joining in occasionally as the student. The result is a compelling, often amusing and always eye-opening look into the world of an individual who is going deaf late in life. Like his protagonist, author Lodge struggles with deafness, hearing aids and annoyed family members. Lodge’s anecdotes will resonate with people with hearing loss: hearing aid batteries dying at inopportune moments; funny looks received when you’ve obviously misinterpreted a key phrase; others thinking they can “fi x” your problems with well-meaning suggestions; and how deafness exponentially increases one’s stress level during the holidays.
Deaf Sentence is often laugh-outloud funny. But even the amusing chapters are poignant, particularly
those dealing with Bates’ aging, working-class father, who refuses to take any advice from his son. Suggestions related to wearing hearing aids, putting his money in an actual bank or simply buying a new mattress fall on, well, deaf ears. Barely hanging on to his own sanity at times, it is a grim revelation to the academic that he is becoming just as stubborn and cranky as his father and the prospect of facing mortality shakes him to the core.
Deaf Sentence is Lodge’s 13th novel. If you don’t know a single soul with hearing loss, the book
is a compelling read. If you have a friend or relative with hearing loss, it is pure insight into how your loved one struggles. And if you are deaf or hard of hearing, Deaf Sentence is vindication, a reminder that you are not the only one dealing with whistling hearing aids, shouting spouses and increasing isolation from the world.
Deaf Sentence, a novel by David Lodge, Viking Penguin Group 2008. Hardcover ISBN 9780670019922, 293 pp., $25.95
