David Schwinghammer > Recent Status Updates

The war is over. Jim and the others are waiting for a ship to take them home.

Grania is sick. She has a dream about Jim, who's fighting in WWI.

Grania is bleeding from her mouth.

Bernard and Kay.

Grew, the barber, lost his son, Richard in the war.

Tress's husband is wounded, but not badly. She's either Grania's sister or best friend.

Jim tells Grania about Pecker Hill, where they send gonorrhea and sphilis cases, which aren't laughable diseases.

Jim is in combat. When one of his buddies is killed, he feels guilty about not being hit.

Jim sings and plays the piano, helping take his fellow troops' minds off the war. I'd forgotten he is now married to Grania, which makes being away from her risking his life even worse.

Jim arrives at Ypres, one of the worst battles of WWI.

Flashback to when Jim had been with Grania. Jim can hear.

Jim starts his duty; he's overcome by the blood and the wounded. He's a stretcher bearer.

Jim, Grania's husband now, is on a ship on his way to fight in WWI.

Grania talks to "Chim (Jim) about sounds. He will soon leave for the war, presumably WWI.

Her father doesn't want Grania disappointed when others suggest there may be a cure for her deafness.

DEAFENING is set during the WWI time slot. Grania is the protagonist. She meets a possible love interest, Jim, at the school for the deaf where she eventually becomes a member of the staff.

At her school for the deaf, Grania realizes she has sisters and brothers, more than she could ever have imagined. Almost 300 of them, who were like herself.

Bompa (Grandpa) Jack and the rest of the family are holding a sort of family reunion. Crania takes pictures and is given the camera as a gift.

Grania learns new words by breaking words down, such as "possee". She's basically lip reading by syllables.

Mamo (Grandmother) tells Grania about her past, about what caused her deafness.

Gilbert, Sybil's son, had wanted to give to give his $43 to a homeless woman, but when he tried, she was gone.

A long letter to her daughter Fiona. There's a major character named Fiona in "Shameless" that I've been watching. I pictured her as I was reading.

Mick asks Sybil to marry him. She was 75 at one point, but the letters are a mess, and it's hard to know for sure. I'm not sure who Mick is anyway, and the book is almost finished.

Who's Theodore? Too many minor characters you lose track of. Letters don't help.This book desperately needs an intro where Evans could tell us who these people are.

Sybil's daughter is angry with her for not attending her ex-husband's funeral.

Sybil has a 49% DNA match. She contacts her.

It's hard to keep track of these people, but Daan is Sybil's ex-husband; he dies and leaves her money. She wasn't expecting anything.

Sybil letters from the 1950's, others from 2015. She takes a DNA test; she's British, Native American, and Russian.

Mrs. Antwerp and a man named Mick are exchanging letters.

Sybil and Mick are corresponding. He invites her to dinner. I don't know if they'd met in person. I don't think so.