MEAN Little deaf Queer by Terry Galloway

When Terry Galloway was born on Halloween in 1950, no one knew 

that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system. 

After her family moved from Berlin Germany, to Austin, TX, 

hers became a deafening, hallucinatory childhood where everything, including her own body, changed for the worse.

But those unwelcome changes awoke in this particular child a dark, defiant humor

that fueled her lifelong obsessions with language, duplicity, & performance.

~MLdQ site

MY THOUGHTS:I bought this book from Open Books [an awesome non-profit bookstore in River North]. It was in the biography section & I only pulled it off the shelf because of the crazy title on its' spine. I was excited when the back cover told me this MEAN Little deaf Queer also loves theatre! The honesty with which Ms. Galloway told her story was refreshing. She presented herself as well-rounded, imaginable person with human flaws instead of one who simply & primarily coped with a physical incapacity. While reading, there were several times that I forgot that her deafness was the catalyst for the novel because her theatrical experiences, personal relationships, & retelling of family stories were so engaging. This is not to say she did not openly address the unasked questions regarding her deafness. There was a chapter entitled Little-d Deaf where she addressed the hierarchy that exists in the deaf community surrounding the choice to lip-read or sign [for the record, lip-reading is extremely difficult but allows a more universal sense of communication in the hearing community while signing serves as the approachable & universal means of communication in the deaf community. Terry Galloway is exceptionally skilled at lip-reading due to an intrinsic ability & having been self-taught in the skill since childhood, so relied primarily upon lip-reading until she received a cochlear implants later in life.] 

I loved the narrative of this autobiography, but I loved the author’s voice more.

Her writing style pretty much married 

ELIZABETH WURTZEL (Prozac Nation; More, Now, Again; & B***h), 

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH (Fires in the Mirror), & THE MIRACLE WORKER. 

This story is inspiring, approachable, awesome, & enriching. 

I loved this book & burned through it. You should do the same!