DEAFENING

In this gentle story of ungentle times, a deaf Irish-Canadian girl comes of age, learns to cope with her handicap, and finds love in the opening decades of the twentieth century. WWI intervenes, whisking her new (hearing) husband into the trenches of Normandy. Will the tide of history overwhelm the couple? The novel features much period detail, not only of quotidian life, but of the treatment and education of the deaf. Canadian actress Lorraine Hamelin speeds through much of the tale in an irritatingly goody-goody style. She has a pleasant "young mom" sound but is not particularly expressive. Y.R.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]