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Deaf Sentence |  | Author: David Lodge
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
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Seller: revivalbooks2
Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 973
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141035706
EAN: 9780141035703
ASIN: 0141035706
Publication Date: June 4, 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 47
Book March 6, 2010
Mrs. E. Birch (york england)
Being deaf myself I was expecting more funny stories and frustrations but the problems did come across . Agood read but a little laboured in parts.
 Death Sentence March 4, 2010
Ms. J. Francis (London)
I found this book drab. All throughout the lead character Desmond, a retired university lecturer who specialised in linguistics, had the sentiment 'I don't mean to complain... but...', then listing off reason after reason why edging toward deafness was a serious ailment and that 'no one REALLY cares... boohoo'. He just ends up sounding like a dull, over educated, destitute bore.
There was no firm storyline thread for the reader to grasp throughout. As almost everyone else reviewing here points out, the story line with Alex Loom was totally undercooked when it could have been something really special. Then is just completely worked out at the end without any real explanation. His wife Winifred came across as curt, controlling and contrary, and unfortunately she was always lingering in the background somewhere. I rather enjoyed how the author explored Desmond's relationship with his father, but as the direction of the book lacked focus I was unsure how the author would connect all the events together to a cohesive whole. Which I don't think he did, it just fizzled out to a morose, quiet end.
 Not just meant to be funny you silly previous reviewers February 27, 2010
amolib (UK)
Death and Deaf are indistinguishable to lip readers. Those are the two themes of this book. If you are looking for a mainly comic romp, like earliest Lodge, you won't find it here because the author has grown up and grown old- as we all do.
Yes it is a very funny look at the embarrassingly ridiculous things that happen to someone going deaf. ( The Christmas party where he has lost his hearing aid batteries and shouts a monologue analyzing the Wonderbar adverts at a woman he imagines is in advertising, I found very funny.)
However it is also about growing old and death. How can any of the other reviewers treat as purely comic a book that includes Auschwitz and assisted dying? Lodge is trying to be life-like - juxtaposing the tragic and the funny. Like its first person hero. He is a rather silly aging man who dallies sexually with a dangerous academic wannabe fantasizer of the kind who hang around universities. But he also has a tragic secret and mourns the "dying of the light" and passing of previous generations - carefully written with a new birth also happening.
Anyway, as someone frequently forced to go to Centre Parcs in the past I very much enjoyed the analogies with Hieronymous Bosch's Hell in the "Gladeworld" chapter.
Really first class February 22, 2010
Martin A. Chambers (U.K.)
I kept having to remind myself that this novel was fiction. It chronicles the tribulations of a middle aged man going deaf. Not completely deaf but missing bits of words and not being able follow conversations at parties. Anyone who suffers in a similar fashion will recognise the circumstances in which he finds himself. It is crammed full of shrewd observations and is in addition very funny. There are not any cruel jokes about people who are hard of hearing, but this is a story told with sympathy. A really excellent read and highly recommended.
Lodge at his best February 18, 2010
Ruth (London)
I loved this entertaining, original and deeply moving book and was sad when it ended. Lodge describes real people, feelings and situations and this novel covered linguistics, moral and religious issues, academia and a visit to Auschwitz as well as deafness. Wonderfully satisfying, personal and highly recommended. I couldn't put it down.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 47
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