leigh_ann_15_deaf's review
2.0
Deaf reader reviewing books with deaf characters.
This story follows Max, first white deaf man to be accepted into a biological photography program at Galveston. The deafness itself is handled well and is very accurate, which makes sense because the author is deaf.
My issues are with the racism and misogyny throughout the novel.
Max works with a coroner (Dr. Yazzie) who has a deaf sister and can sign a bit. She has a very paternal/ableist attitude. She mentions that there are “no programs to help deaf children” in her area, and wonders how did Max “get through” high school. She also talks about how in the Navajo nation, disabled children are shunned, uneducated, deprived of language and culture. (Is this true? Google doesn’t turn up much info, especially not for the 80s when this took place.) Dr Yazzie let her sister hang around with her to copy what she did, like chores. Then the family sent her to the Phoenix deaf school to learn ASL, a little of which Yazzie picked up.
You know the author is 100% white because he compares the slur “nid,” derived from NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), which is used by hearing students to discuss deaf students, the “equivalent of calling black people” the n-word (but he actually writes out the word). Yikes. I can guarantee you, sir, that it is not equivalent. Nid has nothing of the history and oppression and violence attached to the n-word.
Throughout the novel, Conley uses racist terminology (“Indian squaw”, “illegal alien,” “Siamese twins”), ableist terminology (r-slur), trans/homophobia (worries some of the women he asks out are actually men, getting hit in the eye with a ball is “faggy”), misogyny ("I didn’t ride in on a horse. I rode a whore" *slaps girlfriends buttock*).
At one point, Max has retinal surgery and compares it to a Nazi experiment—anti-semitic rhetoric shows up at times, such as calling Zag “Jew Man.” Although the character Zag seems super into the name, it is not clear to me that the author is Jewish.
Max has weird ideas of masculinity (real men don’t eat quiche?). His obsession and fetishization of women is an eye roll every single time. More than 100 pages in, not one woman has appeared for more than a few pages or had a real personality. He fantasizes about strange women (who are generally conventionally attractive and all hearing) sexually and romantically despite barely (or not at all) knowing them. It’s super cringey and gross. He meets an educated Deaf woman named Maddy (also conventionally beautiful) and becomes fast friends. His descriptions of her as well-educated and strong bilingual reveals his attitudes about uneducated Deaf women—he does not want to be involved romantically with Deaf women whom he deems less intelligent, though he knows nothing of the hearing women's education levels when he fantasizes about them. Just gross.
Deaf rep: great. Story and characters: not great.
Link to ranked list of deaf characters in fiction: https://modcast.blog/2022/12/17/ranked-deaf-characters-in-fiction/
This story follows Max, first white deaf man to be accepted into a biological photography program at Galveston. The deafness itself is handled well and is very accurate, which makes sense because the author is deaf.
My issues are with the racism and misogyny throughout the novel.
Max works with a coroner (Dr. Yazzie) who has a deaf sister and can sign a bit. She has a very paternal/ableist attitude. She mentions that there are “no programs to help deaf children” in her area, and wonders how did Max “get through” high school. She also talks about how in the Navajo nation, disabled children are shunned, uneducated, deprived of language and culture. (Is this true? Google doesn’t turn up much info, especially not for the 80s when this took place.) Dr Yazzie let her sister hang around with her to copy what she did, like chores. Then the family sent her to the Phoenix deaf school to learn ASL, a little of which Yazzie picked up.
You know the author is 100% white because he compares the slur “nid,” derived from NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), which is used by hearing students to discuss deaf students, the “equivalent of calling black people” the n-word (but he actually writes out the word). Yikes. I can guarantee you, sir, that it is not equivalent. Nid has nothing of the history and oppression and violence attached to the n-word.
Throughout the novel, Conley uses racist terminology (“Indian squaw”, “illegal alien,” “Siamese twins”), ableist terminology (r-slur), trans/homophobia (worries some of the women he asks out are actually men, getting hit in the eye with a ball is “faggy”), misogyny ("I didn’t ride in on a horse. I rode a whore" *slaps girlfriends buttock*).
At one point, Max has retinal surgery and compares it to a Nazi experiment—anti-semitic rhetoric shows up at times, such as calling Zag “Jew Man.” Although the character Zag seems super into the name, it is not clear to me that the author is Jewish.
Max has weird ideas of masculinity (real men don’t eat quiche?). His obsession and fetishization of women is an eye roll every single time. More than 100 pages in, not one woman has appeared for more than a few pages or had a real personality. He fantasizes about strange women (who are generally conventionally attractive and all hearing) sexually and romantically despite barely (or not at all) knowing them. It’s super cringey and gross. He meets an educated Deaf woman named Maddy (also conventionally beautiful) and becomes fast friends. His descriptions of her as well-educated and strong bilingual reveals his attitudes about uneducated Deaf women—he does not want to be involved romantically with Deaf women whom he deems less intelligent, though he knows nothing of the hearing women's education levels when he fantasizes about them. Just gross.
Deaf rep: great. Story and characters: not great.
Link to ranked list of deaf characters in fiction: https://modcast.blog/2022/12/17/ranked-deaf-characters-in-fiction/
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