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