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Deaf Hearing Boy: A Memoir (Deaf Lives Series, Vol. 2) | 
 enlarge | Author: R.h. Miller
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $14.08
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 557072
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 1563683059
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8740872
EAN: 9781563683053
ASIN: 1563683059
Publication Date: September 17, 2004
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Product Description
Born in 1938, R. H. Miller was the oldest of four hearing boys with deaf parents in Defiance, Ohio, a small agricultural community. Deaf Hearing Boy is Miller’s compelling account of the complex dynamics at work in his family, including the inter-generational conflicts in which he found himself, the oldest child of deaf adults (CODA), caught in the middle.
In 1942, Miller’s family moved to Toledo so that his father could find work. There, they fared well during World War II because his father worked in manufacturing as a member of Roosevelt’s “civilian army.” Miller’s mother loved urban life, where she and the family could immerse themselves in the Toledo Deaf community, especially at the Toledo Silent Club. The end of the war marked the end of prosperity for the Miller family. Returning soldiers displaced all of the deaf workers, who then had to scrape for a living. The Millers, close to destitution, returned to the family farm in Defiance.
Miller depicts the return to farm life as one of tremendous hardship, both economically and psychologically. They lived off the land from hand to mouth. He also describes his grandparents’ distrust of his parents because they were deaf, and he writes candidly of his role as an unwilling agent in the misunderstandings between them. Miller also portrays the bias he endured in school and town. Parents of girlfriends would force their daughters to stop dating him for fear that his family’s deafness would be passed down.
In the early 1950s, Miller’s grandparents sold the farm and his parents returned to industrial work. Miller excelled at school, and eventually left home for college and life in academia. His later reflections reveal a deep, abiding respect for his parents, despite his early difficulties. Deaf Hearing Boy presents an intimate depiction of a changing time for hearing and deaf Americans alike, when the family farm disappeared and the isolation of Deaf people also began to fade. In witnessing this transformation of society through his family’s life, Miller adds an important chapter to the collective narrative of Deaf people, one made all the more poignant and vivid as told by their Deaf Hearing boy.
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| Customer Reviews:
Deaf Hearing Boy January 10, 2007
This is a memoir of a boy with normal hearing who is raised by two deaf parents. It reveals the problems and prejudice faced by this subset of individuals and one boy's never say die techniques of overcoming them. It demonstrates as well the problems, both internal and external of the deaf community. It is a very touching and visceral account of the author's trip from infancy to adulthood in very challenging circumstances which ultimately results in strength and resilience of character. It's a quick read and well worth the time.
Recommending to anyone who enjoys autobiographies! May 25, 2006
R.H. Miller provides very descriptive detail with every sentence. This wonderful book is an autobiography of R.H. Miller's life as he remembers it as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). A fascinating book that you can hardly put down.
A compelling testimony drawn directly from heart and memory January 11, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The second volume of the Deaf Lives series, Deaf Hearing Boy: A Memoir is the true story the author, born in 1938 as the oldest of four hearing boys to deaf parents. Deaf Hearing Boy chronicles growing up in changing times, and the author's own experience as the sometimes unwilling liaison between his deaf parents and hearing grandparents. The end of World War II brought poverty to the family, as returning soldiers displaced his parents' jobs and they had to resort to scraping by on the family farm. Deaf Hearing Boy chronicles an era when small farms gradually faded from the landscape, and cultural connectivity began to erode the isolation of deaf people. It tells of prejudice against the deaf, from fathers who would not let the author date their daughters for fear that the author carried a gene for deafness that would be passed on, to misunderstandings within the family and more. And it tells of a young man's abiding respect for his parents, despite the problems unique to a deaf couple striving to raise hearing children. A compelling testimony drawn directly from heart and memory.
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