|
In This Sign: The Highly Acclaimed Novel of a Family Whose Love and Courage Enable Them to Survive in the Silent World of the Deaf (Owl Books) | 
 enlarge | Author: Joanne Greenberg
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.38
You Save: $15.62 (98%)
New (28) Used (51) Collectible (1) from $0.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 138675
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0805007229
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780805007220
ASIN: 0805007229
Publication Date: September 15, 1984
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Giving great service since 2004: Buy from the Best! 4,000,000 items shipped to delighted customers. We have 1,000,000 unique items ready to ship! Find your Great Buy today!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The highly acclaimed novel of a family whose love and courage enable them to survive in the silent world of the deaf.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Fiction - Once Timely Is Now Dated, Portraying Deaf As Needing Sympathy and Help Rather Than Independent and Self Sufficient September 21, 2008
If this book was published today as a brand-new release, rather than as a reprint, it wouldn't get very far because of the criticism that would be heaped upon the author and her publisher. The book takes a heavily stereotyped view of deafness. The painful aspect is the way the parents are portrayed - they make noise - lots of it, and they embarrass their hearing daughter, and she is also forced to act as their cultural interpreter, which is probably even more significant than the fact that her parents are deaf. They are foreigners in a strange land, where they don't know the customs, and this is an aspect of the book that adult children of immigrants will probably find meaningful.
'In This Sign' is written mostly from the perspective of a girl whose parents are deaf, and the burdens of the family are placed upon her shoulders, beginning with the deaf of her baby brother. She has to negotiate between her grieving parents and the funeral home director, who want to sell the family a lovely and expensive coffin. The parents tell their seven-year-old daughter 'Tell the man we only want a wooden box.' The man stares at the parents in disgust and says out loud 'A wooden box for your dead child! What kind of people are you?'
'In This Sign' is the flip side of deafness being a positive life experience. For every deaf person who is perfectly happy with the cards that life has dealt them, there is a hearing parent, a hearing child, a hearing sibling, who must become the voice between their deaf family and the hearing world.
Interesting ... May 27, 2008
Since my son has lost more hearing and I have had a cochlear implant, I thought I would read more on the deaf culture. This book had plenty to say about the deaf world and what it is like to be deaf, but it is also one of the most depressing books I have ever yet to read. I am not exactly sure what the author intended to achieve with this book because instead of feeling admiration for the characters, I find myself angry and depressed. This should not be labeled as a fiction book.
Other than that, I will have to say, being deaf in the early part of the century also means lack of communication and poor education. This couple fought to survive through the Great Depression and WWII, struggled to raise a family (ironically, both children could hear) and still keep food in their bellies and clothes on their backs with a roof over their heads. They not only had one strike against them, being deaf, they had another strike against them when they were forced to repay $6,000 back to the car dealer who sold them a car. It took them over twenty years to pay it off and they struggled throughout that entire time.
This is an angry and bitter book and I wonder if the author has any personal experience with the deaf culture since she has written so convincingly of their thoughts and ideas. I may be deaf, but I have never signed and I also have never experienced the desolation of these characters. I do relate however, to the daughter's shame of her parents' deafness and their "loud" expressions of their hands when they signed. It has given me an insight of what life was like before I was born, what my life would have been like if I was born just thirty/forty years sooner. And it is not pleasant.
If you're interested in learning more about the deaf culture, this book would do it. But not in the way you might expect since it is a story about a family who fought against the odds to remain alive. It is also a great historical piece of information if you like that sort of thing. If you're looking for a good story, this one might not exactly fit the bill as it is depressing and bitter.
5/27/08
Good, but not like the movie July 6, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book because years ago I saw the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "Love Is Never Silent," which was based on this book. I wanted a more "in-depth" look into the story.
I think this is the first time I liked a movie better than the book. While the book was good, it didn't give me as much of a background into the story as I'd hoped.
There were a few points of the story I wish would have been expanded upon, but I felt like I was left hanging a little bit.
 Deaf Life October 24, 2002
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I am a Sign Language interpreter. I am with deaf people every day. This book is a wonderful, accurate account of how many deaf people feel about the hearing world.
Hearing people will never be able to understand how frustrating a deaf person's life often is. It is hard to have to go through an interpreter for all your business and often private transactions.
This book beautifully told the story from both sides, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Thank you.
Marsha Binau
In This Sign June 19, 2002
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
We all have signs, in spoken language, in the way we behave, in the way we act..... And the signs are important to understand ourselves and to understand others.In this book Joanne Greenberg tells the story of a deaf couple and their hearing daughter. The story is so sad, I have cried alot, and at the same time I learn so much from the book. Janice and Abel are both deaf and because of a misunderstanding early in their married life, a misunderstanding because they are unable to hear, their lives make a tragic turn. This change their lives dramaticaly, and takes away most of the beauty. Their daughter can hear, and becomes the link for Janice and Abel to the world of hearers, a world they don't understand and don't trust. This is the story about Janice and Abel who live in their own world. A world of signs. Signs they are ashamed to show. They are quite young when they leave deaf school to marry, and the book is a heartbreaking story of their fight for their lives in the hearing world. A book you will learn alot from, a book you can't put down once you have started. Britt Arnhild Lindland
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
