The Art of Being Deaf: A Memoir

by Donna McDonald

Concerned about aspects of her romantic relationships, Donna McDonald consulted with a psychologist who asked, “Your hearing loss must have had a big impact on you?” At age 45, with a successful career in social work policy, McDonald took umbrage at the question. Then, she realized that she never had addressed the personal barrier she had constructed between her deaf-self and her hearing persona. In The Art of Being Deaf , she describes her long, arduous pursuit of finding out exactly who she was.
 
       Born in 1950s Australia, McDonald was placed in an oral deaf school when she was five. There, she was trained to communicate only in spoken English. Afterwards, she attended mainstream schools where she excelled with speechreading and hard work. Her determination led to achievements that proved her to be “the deaf girl that had made good.” Yet, despite her constant focus on fitting in the hearing world, McDonald soon realized that she missed her deaf schoolmates and desired to explore her closed-off feelings about being deaf.
 
       When she reconnected with her friends, one urged her to write about her experiences to tell all about “the Forgotten Generation, the orally-raised deaf kids that no one wants to talk about.” In writing her memoir, McDonald did learn to reconcile her deaf-self with her “hearing-deaf” persona, and she realized that the art of being deaf is the art of life, the art of love.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Disability, Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2014

Reviews

[Mima · Rating 5 out of 5]

I trawled up and down the book stacks in the university library, reading the spines of books by audiologists, special educators, speech pathologists and other health professionals. The books seemed faded with age rather than with wear and tear; they had the dusty feel of books that were rarely picked up. And why would they be? With their cheerless titles, who would want to read them? The publishers' blurbs and abstracts revealed a tendency by most "expert" writers to portray deafness as a melancholy condition, or as a subject of caricature, or as a problem to be understood, overcome or resolved. If these are the only books available to parents of deaf children, it is no wonder they are anxious and afraid for their deaf children's futures. p. 64

[Tania]

My take on this book is a new title... "Art of being human regardless of what battles you have to face"

[Olwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first this narrative felt ponderous, heavy, dragging it's feet. Then it picked up as the author revealed even more of herself. An interesting book to read if you want to know more about what it's like to be deaf and inside or outside the Deaf community.

[Jennifer Goldbetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The art of being deaf is the art of life, which, of course, is the art of love."

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed like a lot of rambling as she struggled with herself. The last few pages were the most coherent and meaningful pieces.

[Jemimah Brewster · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can also read this review on my blog at: http://oddfeather.co/2017/09/24/revie...

I read this book as part of my immersion in Deafhood for my AusLan class. I'm very new to learning about Deafhood and the Deaf community, and I think this book was a good place to start; it was recommended through a friend of a friend as a memoir of a Deaf woman exploring her relationship with her deafness while ‘passing’ as a hearing woman in a hearing world.
The book is quite short, less than 200 pages, but in it Donna McDonald goes on a personal journey of discover after being haunted by a therapist's statement/question: ‘Your hearing loss must have had a big impact on you’. Using this question as a sort of thesis statement, McDonald revisits her childhood friends and teachers from when she attended the Oral Deaf Preschool at Yeronga, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Although she later attended a mainstream primary and high school, McDonald continues to remember her time and her friends from the Deaf School as some of the best in her life. Over several years she reads, researches, presents and reflects on her life as a Deaf woman in a hearing world, the work her parents, and particularly her mother, put in to give her the best access to education, and the tension between teaching oralism and signing in the time that she grew up: 1950s and ‘60s Australia.
I don’t read much memoir so had to adjust to the slower rhythms of this book, which has a very gentle story arc, and is focussed on an immensely personal journey with many factors contributing to McDonald’s overall conclusions. But as a starting point for learning about Deafhood it is very helpful as, through McDonald’s own research, it becomes clear that Deafhood can be approached from any number of directions. Some memoirs she reads and dislikes as the author had a bad relationship with their deafness: hating it and being ashamed of it their entire life. Other memoirs she reads and takes comfort in as it is clear that the author did not let being Deaf define their life. Her conclusion, after her years of research, reflection, and conversations with her Deaf friends, is that ‘maybe the art of being deaf is the art of life, which, of course, is the art of love.’
She cites many other works by and about Deaf people through history and around the world, so I have many more resources to explore thanks to this text.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Donna is a great writer and this is a very powerful attempt to make sense of life. Donna was an early pioneer of the oral deaf program for children and as a result she spent much of her adult life identifying with and participating in the hearing community. As time went on this disconnect with her deaf history and the deaf part of her sense of self became unsettling. Her attempts to make sense of this disconnect and to feel more integrated within herself is a rich journey.