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A review by leigh_ann_15_deaf
The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manuel Gonzales
1.0
I'm focusing specifically on "The Sounds of Early Morning," which features a deaf character.
The author is clearly trying to do something metaphorical with sound-as-weapon and deaf-as-protection, but it's completely lost on me because nothing about how the sound affects people makes any sense.
So, the unnamed POV character cannot hear, but acutely feels vibrations like her dog barking, to the point that she takes cover behind a couch to muffle the vibrations. She also uses an afghan and knit hats to muffle vibrations? This isn't how soundproofing works at all.
She has been traumatically deafened by knife to "protect" her ears. Not sure how this works--the knife would have had to destroy the inner ear in order to render the world completely silent, which would lead to all manner of issues like infection, chronic pain, etc.
Even the slightest sound could be fatal to the POV character. A cat yowls at a bird, rendering it unconscious as it flies, and is able to catch it. And yet literally screaming at a dog doesn't kill the dog, and a dog barking doesn't kill the humans hearing it, and a group of raggedy murderous children doesn't kill anyone, either. Literally, a whole group of local children band together to voice at her, and run away unsettled when nothing happens. (Why are the kids immune to each others' voices??) But then they come back and throw rocks at her.
It's probably a play on "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," but this story is so, so weak/underdeveloped. It's told in such a strange, convoluted way that it just doesn't strike me as magical realism, which is what the collection purports to be. There's nothing realistic about it. In fact, it's often downright ridiculous.
PS. I don't understand why she had to close her eyes when approaching the dog? The confusion of senses also detracts from the story. It just doesn't seem to have any sort of logic behind it. Why wouldn't she just...open the door and wait for the dog to run out?? What's stopping the dog from coming back after she screams at it?
The author is clearly trying to do something metaphorical with sound-as-weapon and deaf-as-protection, but it's completely lost on me because nothing about how the sound affects people makes any sense.
So, the unnamed POV character cannot hear, but acutely feels vibrations like her dog barking, to the point that she takes cover behind a couch to muffle the vibrations. She also uses an afghan and knit hats to muffle vibrations? This isn't how soundproofing works at all.
She has been traumatically deafened by knife to "protect" her ears. Not sure how this works--the knife would have had to destroy the inner ear in order to render the world completely silent, which would lead to all manner of issues like infection, chronic pain, etc.
Even the slightest sound could be fatal to the POV character. A cat yowls at a bird, rendering it unconscious as it flies, and is able to catch it. And yet literally screaming at a dog doesn't kill the dog, and a dog barking doesn't kill the humans hearing it, and a group of raggedy murderous children doesn't kill anyone, either. Literally, a whole group of local children band together to voice at her, and run away unsettled when nothing happens. (Why are the kids immune to each others' voices??) But then they come back and throw rocks at her.
It's probably a play on "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," but this story is so, so weak/underdeveloped. It's told in such a strange, convoluted way that it just doesn't strike me as magical realism, which is what the collection purports to be. There's nothing realistic about it. In fact, it's often downright ridiculous.
PS. I don't understand why she had to close her eyes when approaching the dog? The confusion of senses also detracts from the story. It just doesn't seem to have any sort of logic behind it. Why wouldn't she just...open the door and wait for the dog to run out?? What's stopping the dog from coming back after she screams at it?
Deaf reader reviewing books with deaf characters. This book is listed on my ranked list of books with deaf characters: https://slacowan.com/2023/01/14/ranked-deaf-characters-in-fiction.