Different Ways of Being

by Alan Balter

From Linkville For Willa and Robert, it's a quiet time. The sky takes on a greenish hue, and great bolts of lightning zigzag overhead. The rumble of thunder vibrates through the floor, and trees bend against the wind. Hailstones, some the size of marbles, pepper the windows and fracture on the driveway and sidewalks. Shutters flap against the siding. Soon, the street is littered with tree branches, roofing shingles, and assorted trash. A riderless tricycle blows by in odd concert with a trash can and a soccer ball. The noise is considerable, but for Willa and Robert, it's a quiet time. It's always a quiet time. So begins Different Ways of Being, Alan Balter's strong and sensitive novel about people who are Deaf. Willa and Robert are congenitally deaf and members of the Deaf Culture. They communicate with American Sign Language and prefer to socialize with other Deaf rather than interact with people who hear. For them, deafness is not a disability; thus, they don't want to hear any more than hearing people want to be deaf. They consider marriages between deaf and hearing people to be "mixed marriages" that are destined to fail. So strong are the beliefs of members of the Deaf Culture that many would choose to abort a pregnancy rather than have a hearing child.

370 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2015

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were deaf and your child were born deaf, would you want your child to hear? Alan Balter’s fact-filled novel, Different Ways of Being, offers intriguing answers to this and other questions as it brings the world of the deaf to vivid life, leaving readers to ponder perhaps that silent world isn’t a handicap—rather just “different.” But what if your child were unable to use his legs? What if your child couldn’t think or concentrate? Would you “repair” the child then?

Alan Balter’s novel hovers very cleverly on that line between fact and fiction, presenting vast amounts of details and statistics in a manner that reads as smoothly as the story woven into the pages. A family of Deaf—mother, father and son never had hearing; a family of orphans—mother and father never had parents, and the wounded child doesn’t know how to relate to parents, teachers, or the world; a family that deals with paraplegia, and details the issues involved in wanting to marry and have a child… The lives of families intersect, sometimes sweetly, sometimes in terror. Depression rears its ugly head, and every step of the way to life, acceptance and forgiveness is explored. It’s a wonderfully hopeful tale, a surprisingly absorbing tale (given its wealth of facts), and a novel that leads the reader to see the world through different eyes.

We even learn why the Deaf can dance, and this novel, while piling misfortune on coincidence, dances to a very pleasing beat.

Disclosure: I bought it when it was free.