Mean little deaf queer : a memoir

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf. As a self-proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury with her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children. Ever since that first real-life performance, Galloway has used theater, whether onstage or off, to defy and transcend her reality. With disarming candor, she writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity, and living in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters. What could have been a bitter litany of complaint is instead an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting take on life.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ijustgetbored

Galloway's book is, as you may have guessed by the title, no sentimental tear-jerker about being deaf in a hearing world. Rather, it is an all-out, no-holds-barred testimony to living live to the fullest in your own way and taking advantage of whatever life may happen to throw at you. Galloway's

spunky attitude is refreshing and often hilarious, and her personality shines through in her memoir. She wastes no space on meandering by-the-ways, and she's always hitting the mark directly. Her family and friends provide constant support to the memoir, as she tenderly and sharply characterizes them; the cast is unbeatable. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member echo2

This is a funny, electrical, no-bullshit tale by a wry and talented author. Terry Galloway navigates the waters that have drowned many a wannabe memoirist -- disability, sexual identity, and mental health among them -- with ease, evoking compassion but never pity. Whether she's describing the

politics and hierarchies of Deaf culture (not to be confused with the world of the "little-d" deaf) or the challenges of appearing imperfect in the theater world, Galloway's observations are always spot-on and perfectly timed. If you like memoirs at all, read this one.

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LibraryThing member jmzarate

I really liked the first half of Terry Galloway's Mean Little deaf Queer, but I found the 2nd half of the book fairly rambling and tedious to get through. I think Ms. Galloway has a ton of great stories to tell, and those that she does tell in full description are funny (not so much laugh out loud

funny, perhaps more bemusing) and interesting and really catch the reader's attention. When she goes on her tangents after starting a story and bounces around, it can be somewhat hard to figure out if she's remembering the past or switching her main story or what the heck is going on. I almost felt like the bulk of this memoir was an outline for her to go back and expand upon. I would love to read more stories about her youth and her family as well as her theatre days and all her relationships (tortured and not).

I never felt this was a "pity me" memoir but more, this is how it was, this is my life, this happened, so deal with it. Her honesty with the lowest points in her life and very refreshing insomuch that she didn't wallow in the low points as much as state that they happened.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about someone's life that is definitely "alternative" (a term she uses a lot). It's not for the faint of heart or the prissy, so if those who get their sensibilities all bent out sort because of the smallest thing probably should pass this book by.

I hope Ms. Galloway writes more and centers her writing on specifics of her life instead of trying to encompass so much in so little space.

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LibraryThing member EmScape

As more and more memoirs are published, it becomes harder to find a unique 'hook.' Terry Galloway is both deaf and a lesbian, so it was intriguing to pick up this memoir if just to find out how those two characteristics influenced her life. It seems that being deaf was the more salient point of the

memoir and her queerness was more of a secondary tale, but that doesn't take away from the narrative at all.
The book is very loosely chronological; in fact, most of the chapters are more like essays on a theme, skipping forward and back to tell a whole story. I enjoyed reading about Galloway's experiences in the theater and with other people who are disabled the most. An intriguing second project for Galloway might be to collect and publish the stories she alludes to in her final chapter about her Actual Lives cohorts, a performance group for those with disabilities.
I find her family and friends almost unbelievably liberal and accepting, more okay with her sexual identity than with her disability, and this strikes me as odd, but sort of refreshing; especially considering she spent almost all her life in the Conservative American South. However, I get the feeling that there was more discrimination she had to deal with than she relates; almost all the derogatory comments in the book are made about her deafness.
One thing I was disappointed by was that most of the cover blurbs and other advertising about this book portray it as 'hilarious.' I found very little of it funny and only laughed out loud once. It was still a great book, but I expected something slightly different from reading the promotional material. That is more a failing of the publisher than the author, of course, and others with a different sense of humor might actually find it funnier than I did.
Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who likes memoirs, especially people who, like me, are becoming increasingly bored with the genre.

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LibraryThing member ldellinger

Terry Galloway wasn't born deaf. She lost her hearing slowly when she was nine, around the same age that she began realizing that she is a lesbian.

Her memoir was funny at times, but mostly it was a well-written story of her life, her family and their lore. Galloway's peeks back to her childhood

were often heartbreaking, as were her stories of adulthood depression and suicide attempts. Her discovery and sexual experimentation with women recall Sedaris and Burroughs; they're real and honest but never exploited, never overplayed to shock her reader.

Overall, her story of self-discovery was interesting, funny, and well-worth the read!

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LibraryThing member lorimarie

I’m always drawn to memoirs because I can’t remember what I did last week, let alone 20 or 30 years ago. All the drama surrounding Terry with her disability and her sexuality made for lots of interesting stories. I found the book to be a very good read. I sometimes felt a little like I was

searching the web, what I mean is that one story would turn into a completely different story all together. But it worked. I don’t have the need to read a story in chronological order. I most enjoyed the different family stories, especially when she was growing up in Germany and later in Texas. My only complaint would be that all the things I read about the book before I read it said how hilarious it was. I was expecting something along the lines of David Sedaris. True there were some funny moments, but mostly it seemed to me an honest and heartfelt story about growing up different. I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about other people’s lives.

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LibraryThing member leaseylease

Definately not "hilarious," as others have pointed out. I found it hard to follow and on the boring side. I'm sure the theater work the author did and does is much better in real life, but reading about it was quite yawn-inducing.

LibraryThing member madhatter22

Terry Galloway has lived an interesting life, and is a talented storyteller. In "Mean Little deaf Queer" she relates with humor and honesty her struggles with hearing loss and finding her sexual identity, and with determining what the labels "disabled" and "queer" have meant in her life. She

conveys her depression and despair without ever sounding whiny, and her triumphs without sounding overly sentimental.
Her memoir is not totally devoted to her struggles however. My favorite parts of the book were the family stories - the kind that get told over and over when families get together about the eccentric aunt or the cousin you only whisper about or the strange thing that happened to grandpa that one time.
My one criticism is that because her story is not told chronologically, I was a little thrown off at first about the sequence of events. Even after I realized what she was doing, the style made the whole thing feel a bit disjointed.
Overall though, I enjoyed "Mean Little deaf Queer", and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys memoirs.

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LibraryThing member texichan

This was an entertaining book, though it dragged quite a bit more than I would have liked. I ended up forcing myself to press on quite a bit. Terry creates mixed feelings in me - certainly riding a line between sympathy, disdain, empathy, etc. She often seems to be that one child that is immensely

agitating, but at least she throws in reasoning and background as to why it was such a way, which is nice. I appreciate the insight. I find it difficult much of the time to connect with her character type. It certainly isn't laugh-out-loud hilarity, but more of a blunt survey of an interesting and peculiar life. Worth a read, but not at the top of my list.

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LibraryThing member kepitcher

Becoming a theatre professional is hard enough, but Terry Galloway's memoir of her life as a performer with disabilities showcased how difficult it truly is for someone to break into the theatre world with challenges. However, she uses too much space in her book to highlight her bad love life

decisions and too little talking about the hurdles and problems those with disabilities face. The book felt like a series of vignettes strung together, rather than a cohesive whole. Her stories were full of spark and life, she's a good writer, but the book needed to be pulled together. In the last section, Galloway's description of her father's last few days was mesmerizing and heartbreaking and I finished the book wishing she had written more like that throughout the book. Still, Galloway does have something to say and is a funny and sharp storyteller. I'm going to look out for a short story collection, which I know must be on the horizon. Recommended.

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LibraryThing member ninarucker

The subject matter of Galloway's book was interesting but I did not like the way she told her story. It was too pieced together feeling. I found myself skimming over parts of this book because it was far too drawn out.

LibraryThing member insolent_redhead

Mean Little deaf Queer is one of the best books I've read this year. The title sets a very distinct tone--one that Terry Galloway fleshes out almost perfectly. Unlike the majority of memoirs, I didn't feel as if she went out of her way to embellish her experiences. I appreciated her frankness and

sense of humor.

Although Galloway's story is exceptionally unique, I could identify with her. Of course, being deaf and queer exacerbates the normal human horrors and humiliations we all go through at some point--but still, the array of emotions are familiar. She comes across as the kind of person you could share stories with over a cup of coffee.

I wouldn't say this is the best memoir I've read, but it's definitely worth reading. I recommend it.

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LibraryThing member GirlMisanthrope

Sometimes it helps to delve into other people's lives in order to appreciate your own. I appreciated the peek into Galloway's life and appreciate her perserverence. A rocky read overall, as I found the last half of the book tougher to get through, more tediouos, and found myself skimming over

sections.

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LibraryThing member Lisu

Autobiographical story of Terry Galloway, who at the age of eight starts to loose the ability to hear. Galloway writes about living in a silent, odd world populated by unforgettable characters. With the story being one on a disabeled queer one expects it to be a sad one, however it's hilarious and

leaves me so happy.

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LibraryThing member laurustina

I liked this book. I wanted to like it more. It's a good read, particularly the first 1/3 which focuses on Galloway's childhood. Her experiences are rich and unique and her storytelling especially strong in the beginning. And it may be that theater (her great passion) is difficult to translate to

the page, or that it's not as engaging as she, herself is. There are awkward overlaps with some of the stories, so that you get one impression of a certain time in her life, only to have the next story shift that perception with conflicting information. Still, I would recommend Mean Little Deaf Queer for it's unique perspective, some honestly brilliant writing about disability and a final chapter which made me weep.

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LibraryThing member akblanchard

The life and mostly-lesbian loves of a woman who became (small-d) deaf at the age of nine are explored in this wry, David-Sedaris-like memoir.

Author Terry Galloway was born in post-WWII Germany; her father was a Cold-War era American spy. Galloway inherited his ability to act as if she were

someone else. Despite her difficulties with hearing (even with hearing aids) and enunciation, Galloway devotes her life to theater, where she makes a fulfilling, if sometimes impoverished, life for herself. She also finds true love and some measure of mental stability, despite some severe episodes of dissociation and depression. As other readers have commented, the first half of the book is more engaging than the second. Still, I recommend this book.

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