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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
donnaburtwistle's review against another edition
4.0
An incredible story about a deaf girl who falls in love with a young man, just as the Great War is unfolding.
florenciasaposnik's review against another edition
3.0
Meh :/ beginning was really intriguing but beyond that this is just a cliche love story during world war one where the woman is helpless without a man
debmylin's review against another edition
3.0
This novel about WWI was, as some other reviewers have noted, far too long.
Good points: Canadian perspective of WWI, description of small-town life in Ontario, interesting main character.
Good points: Canadian perspective of WWI, description of small-town life in Ontario, interesting main character.
juniperd's review against another edition
5.0
This novel is so beautiful ~ the words, the sentences, the story, the flow - Frances Itani is amazing! I loved this book.
bookgirl1209's review against another edition
2.0
I'd give this one 2 and a half stars.
The first half was kind of flat and I had to force myself to continue but the second half was more engaging. I liked the jumping from Jim's experiences in the war and Grania's at home, Itani did a wonderful job of making the war experiences feel noisy and loud and contrasting it with how Grania's home life felt silent and muted even when there was noise. There were so many interesting characters yet I felt that I wanted them more developed, I wanted to know them better but was never allowed too.
inthelunaseas's review against another edition
3.0
I very much enjoyed the start of this book. I liked how Itani described Grania's education, and the development of her and Mamo's relationship. Itani had also delicately emphasised Grania's ability to perceive the world. But what I liked most was how the world perceived her. The way she interacted with others, and how others interacted with her. From Grania's mother, to her sister and grandmother and the people at school. They all interacted with her in different but realistic ways. Furthermore, because this was set in the early 1900s, there wasn't a lot of knowledge on how deafness worked, and how to approach the deaf.
I liked reading about Grania's school. How they were taught, and how Grania eventually came to believe in herself and her ability to learn sign language. How she came to accept that she could be taught, in a manner of speaking. There was a gentle growth of self-assuredness, that she was worthy of learning. I also enjoyed reading about the other deaf students in the school.
And throughout all of this, Itani managed to capture the essence of sound. How would you describe sound to someone who can't hear? It's like trying to describe taste without comparing it to other tastes. How would you describe vanilla ice cream, or a tomato, or yoghurt? Sweet, savoury, they can only go so far. And the same goes with sound. What is exactly is the sound of a car engine, or the tapping of keys on a keyboard, or the touch of a bow along a violin?
This was all amazing, but in the second half of the novel, I felt Itani fell flat. It became a war story, which is all well and good, but I wanted to read more about Grania's growth as a deaf character. I felt the point of the novel fell flat. Jim and Grania's relationship just was. There was no development there. They meet and then they're married. What happened in between? Some parts of the war scenes were heavy handed. War is useless meets war is NOISY. How did this really meet with Grania's world? I just felt Itani wasn't quite sure what direction she wanted the novel to head in.
There were other storylines in here that could have been followed. The one involving Kenan would have worked a lot better, I feel. But ultimately it felt like two (or three) stories mushed together into one. And given Itani previously wrote primarily short stories, I think this is what happened. This isn't a poor or bad novel, as the first part is beautiful. It just didn't quite scratch my itch.
I liked reading about Grania's school. How they were taught, and how Grania eventually came to believe in herself and her ability to learn sign language. How she came to accept that she could be taught, in a manner of speaking. There was a gentle growth of self-assuredness, that she was worthy of learning. I also enjoyed reading about the other deaf students in the school.
And throughout all of this, Itani managed to capture the essence of sound. How would you describe sound to someone who can't hear? It's like trying to describe taste without comparing it to other tastes. How would you describe vanilla ice cream, or a tomato, or yoghurt? Sweet, savoury, they can only go so far. And the same goes with sound. What is exactly is the sound of a car engine, or the tapping of keys on a keyboard, or the touch of a bow along a violin?
This was all amazing, but in the second half of the novel, I felt Itani fell flat. It became a war story, which is all well and good, but I wanted to read more about Grania's growth as a deaf character. I felt the point of the novel fell flat. Jim and Grania's relationship just was. There was no development there. They meet and then they're married. What happened in between? Some parts of the war scenes were heavy handed. War is useless meets war is NOISY. How did this really meet with Grania's world? I just felt Itani wasn't quite sure what direction she wanted the novel to head in.
There were other storylines in here that could have been followed. The one involving Kenan would have worked a lot better, I feel. But ultimately it felt like two (or three) stories mushed together into one. And given Itani previously wrote primarily short stories, I think this is what happened. This isn't a poor or bad novel, as the first part is beautiful. It just didn't quite scratch my itch.