The Feel of Silence

Health, Society, and Policy

by Bonnie Poitras Tucker

Book by Tucker, Bonnie

Genres: Nonfiction

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Sofie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was sooo inspiring - Bonnie is the most badass woman ever
overall i enjoyed this book and i enjoyed Bonnie’s writing a lot, but i’m not giving this 4 stars because there was too much lawyer stuff that i didn’t understand at the end

[Sarlis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Für mich ist es ganz schwierig den Inhalt zu bewerten. Für mich ist dieses Buch, diese Geschichte über das Leben der Bonnie Poitras eine Biographie, denn die Autorin erzählt aus ihrem Leben. Und daher möchte ich es nicht bewerten.
Das Buch enthält ein großes Thema, nämlich die Taubheit, und wie es ist mit dieser "Krankheit" in einer Welt wie dieser zu leben.

Ich fand es sehr gut beschrieben und sehr hilfreich, denn so bekam ich persönlich gute Eindrücke wie es ist die Welt aus einer anderen Perspektive zu sehen. Daher doch 3 Sterne.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ran into this book by accident looking for a book about law. (LOC cataloged it in the Dewey system as 340.092, near books like Legal Realism at Yale.) It’s actually the autobiography of Bonnie Poitras Tucker, born (so far as anyone can tell) totally deaf but who eventually became a lawyer and a law school professor. Tucker’s strength is in communicating the burden of being deaf even for a gifted lip reader.

I never thought about how terrifying darkness must be for the deaf, how much it would hurt to be thought rude because one couldn’t hear everyday sounds or conversation, or even how a mustache might completely frustrate a lip reader. Tucker’s reluctance to tell others about her handicap undoubtedly made some periods of her life more difficult than they might have been otherwise, but it takes little imagination for the reader to sympathize with her desire to be “normal.”

Curiously, although Tucker is an expert on the law of disabilities, her book does not address legal issues in any rigorous way. For her, it is a self-evident truth that a theater owner should provide a seat for her interpreter at no charge. Likewise, the brief attempt she makes to discuss her religious beliefs (basically none) is more simplistic than one would expect from a law school teacher. Nevertheless, the book is worth reading. As a teacher who has had a number of deaf students over the years, I will certainly think twice before regrowing a mustache.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Bonnie is a friend; I have known her for about 10 years. Thus, I knew much of her story, but certainly not in the detail that she goes into in this autobiography! I've always thought she was a remarkable person, to have accomplished the things she has and to have the gifts and talents she has (the book doesn't address it, but she is also an extremely gifted artist - now that she is retired from law and has time to pursue it!). I must admit, though, that I'd never given much thought to the uphill battles that she's had to forge - and to the fact that the status of people with disabilities was so much different when she was a child and young woman than it is now (thank, in part, to work she has done in disability law!). Bonnie writes well, and very clearly expresses not only her frustrations - but the gifts that she has accumulated along the way. I must admit to chuckling out loud in several places - particularly when she talks about her own lack of patience! - as this a trait that her other friends and I well recognize! This book is fascinating - not only to give insights into Bonnie's world as a deaf person, but also to give insights into the way women lived - and were expected to live - during the "pre-Women's Lib" era!

[Cindy Götz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spannender Einblick in das Leben einer Hörenden mit Beschränkungen. Man lernt viel über Gehörlosigkeit selbst, den Umgang damit und vor allem auf welche verschiedenen Weisen man damit umgehen kann. Ich bin begeistert, habe total viel gelernt, gelacht, geweint und würde das Buch einfach jedem weiterempfehlen der vielleicht auch nur ein bisschen Interesse daran hat, mehr über die Thematik zu erfahren!

[Sabine Logeswaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich könnte viel Neues über das Thema Taubheit erfahren. Hochinteressant und hilfreich.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Eye-Opener zur Welt der Tauben! So viele Hürden, über die man als Hörender gar nicht nachdenkt. Interessant geschrieben.

[lovely_hug24 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Empfehlung für alle, die wahre Geschichten über starke Frauen lieben & einmal über den eigenen Tellerrand hinausblicken wollen 😊

Es ist schon erstaunlich, wie überrascht man als Mensch mit Gehör über Herausforderungen im Alltag von Menschen ohne Gehör ist.
Das liegt wohl daran, dass man zu sehr im eigenen Denken und Leben verhaftet ist, in dem das Hören einem selbstverständlich erscheint.
Für mich war das Buch sehr augenöffnend und horizonterweiternd.
Auch war mir gar nicht bewusst, wie stark Bevormundung, Diskriminierung und Ableismus aufgrund von fehlendem Gehör geschah/ geschieht (?).

Mein großer Respekt geht an die Autorin, die Selbstbestimmung und Stärke sowie Empowerment tagtäglich lebt 🙏🏼

Einzig die Erfahrungen im juristischen Bereich waren für mich persönlich zu langatmig und detailreich beschrieben.

3,5 ⭐

[Shubhneet Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable journey! Life’s part destiny, part free will - and the game is perhaps to exercise the later.
Definitely made me realize the inconsiderations someone with a nature given challenges has to go through due to indifference from people who have had a better fortune. Also immensely inspiring to see Bonnie carve a path for herself and enabling a generation of people to defy nature’s odd predicaments.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8ish

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for my Intro to Deaf Culture class at Suffolk Community Worthless. I absolutely loved it. The professor had us on a schedule of about one chapter per week, but after a while I just kept reading it and I was done just a few classes into the semester. It was an eye-opening memoir of a female lawyer who is deaf, and has spent her entire life in the Hearing world (which can be said for all deaf people, probably, but she had no exposure to Deaf Culture at all, probably until she was in her forties). It's not a book that's looked upon favorably by the Deaf Community, because Tucker is an advocate of the "mainstreaming" approach to educating the deaf (speech and lipreading). Later in Life, Bonnie Tucker joins the Alexander Graham Bell Society (Alexander Graham Bell was a proponent of mainstreaming the deaf). I found it fascinating and heartbreaking and I'd recommend it to anyone.

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing memoir of an amazing woman. Loved this book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a hearing-impaired person that operates in that tricky no-man's land between the hearing world and the deaf world, this novel was definitive in the feelings and emotions of silence with a voice. Poignant and insightful, as it should be--the language of words is her only medium.

[Michelle]

A fascinating story of oral deafness--not your typical "trumph over disability" story. Brings up some interesting things to think about. Very honest--helped me visualize a little better what it might be like to be deaf

[Kelly]

Required reading for first year at Smith College. Unfortunately I don't remember many details, but I do know that I found it an enjoyable and enlightening read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really captures the deaf/hard-of-hearing experience well.