Deaf sentence

by David Lodge. Harvill Secker, 2008.

David Lodge’s books include comic gems such as the campus comedy Changing Places, as well as more serious works such as Author, Author. Deaf Sentence is a bit of a mixture. It has comic elements, but the overall tone is darker, even alarming. Retired Professor, Desmond Bates, finds that life has become tiresome and embarrassing due to the onset of hearing loss. While blindness is commonly regarded as tragic, he observes, deafness is often the source of amusement, though not for the deaf person himself. Desmond’s ageing father is a source of further disquiet for him, as the start of some sort of dementia makes itself known. Set against these two strands of plot is a third, less successful element, involving a young, erratic student who is supposedly researching the language used in suicide notes. This plot element is not fully worked out, and is somehow reminiscent of the movie Fatal Attraction, (though no bunnies are harmed). Altogether, though, the novel is written with Lodge’s customary elegance, and successfully draws attention to the under-appreciated struggle many people have with deafness.

- John