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A review by dr_aimz
Ismael and His Sisters by Louise Stern
3.0
I bought Ismael and His Sisters (Granta, 2015) after listening to Louise Stern's 'postcard from London' on BBC Radio 4's Open Book. The postcard was read on air by an actor as Stern is deaf; she is the fourth generation to be born deaf in her family. After seeing a glimpse of the deaf community in Grayson Perry's marvellous Who Do You Think You Are documentary series, I was fascinated by Stern's ideas about the relationship between the deaf experience and writing, and the ways in which she tries to articulate this relationship through her work. (I highly recommend searching for the podcast.)
The titular characters of Ismael and His Sisters are deaf and live in a Mayan village, a community where the hearing and non-hearing coexist. An event occurs that forces Ismael to flee the village and live in the city and the narrative splits between his experience in the city and the lives of Rosie and Cristina, the sisters he has left behind.
Ismael and His Sisters is a beautifully written short novel; at times, the writing made me feel woozy and disorientated as certain passages — particularly Rosie's — guide you towards viewing the world in a different way. And not just the external, physical world: Stern shows how experiencing the world without verbal *or* written language (the protagonists cannot read) can drastically alter how one's emotions and inner thoughts are felt and understood.
It's definitely a book well worth checking out, particularly if you enjoy the writing of Eimear McBride, Toni Morrison, Ali Smith, and José Eduardo Agualusa.
The titular characters of Ismael and His Sisters are deaf and live in a Mayan village, a community where the hearing and non-hearing coexist. An event occurs that forces Ismael to flee the village and live in the city and the narrative splits between his experience in the city and the lives of Rosie and Cristina, the sisters he has left behind.
Ismael and His Sisters is a beautifully written short novel; at times, the writing made me feel woozy and disorientated as certain passages — particularly Rosie's — guide you towards viewing the world in a different way. And not just the external, physical world: Stern shows how experiencing the world without verbal *or* written language (the protagonists cannot read) can drastically alter how one's emotions and inner thoughts are felt and understood.
It's definitely a book well worth checking out, particularly if you enjoy the writing of Eimear McBride, Toni Morrison, Ali Smith, and José Eduardo Agualusa.