Title :: Deafening
Author :: Frances Itani
Publisher :: Hodder Headline
Rating :: (out of 5)
Recommendation :: A fantastic read. Slow and easy, gripping, intense and well-written.

:: Full Review
Only after reading the whole book did I realize that Deafening is Frances Itani's first novel. She has published other books from other genres before, like short story collections, children's books and poetry before publishing Deafening.

And with this acknowledgement, I raise my hat off to this first-time writer because Itani writes, if not well, she writes confidently. If her writing is not perfect, she makes it intense. Not that there is anything wrong with her writing style....she's an extremely descriptive writer.

The book is not a love story although one would assume it to be so. The synopsis of the book tells about a deaf girl, Grania (an Irish name) who falls in love with a hearing man and they spend their 'honeymoon' oceans apart - one in the war and the other waiting anxiously for his return.

Frankly, that's an understatement. The book is more than that. It is deeply intense most parts of the way, starting with the very moving beginnings of Grania as a child who tries hard to deal with her hearing loss at the tender age of 4. The situation changed everything for her family and her. Then Grania was sent off to a special school for the deaf where she learnt how to read and write the 'deaf way'. Before going off to school, Grania essentially communicates by reading the lips of the people who are talking. The part where she goes to school, is the irrelevant part of the book, in my personal opinion. During her tenure in the school, she learnt nothing special (cause she went back home only to continue reading lips, anyway), she met no on particularly special, except for one measly friend and that's it!

But it did equip her with the knowledge and ability to deal with everyone else outside her family. And she manages to secure jobs with hospitals and other places - and that's how she met Jim.

Without telling everything there is to tell about the story, this is not a love story. It deals with Grania's loss of her hearing. The family's gripping tale of how they had to deal with her loss and how Grania's mother refuses to accept the fact that Grania can no longer hear. A tale of how a special child closes herself off from the rest of world and finds peace AND strength within the quietness. It's about a love between sisters, Tress and Grania, and it was amazingly sweet how Itani writes about the sisterly relationship between Tress and Grania. The childish games and behaviors were described in detail - so detailed it almost seemed real.

The development of the relationship between Jim (her husband) and Grania was abrupt. There was nothing really special written about them and that's the strange thing. I had a feeling the love story was edited out of the book during the final cut. And it probably ended up on the editor's rubbish bin. Itani writes quickly about how they met, how they courted each other but it was all within 10-25 pages. I don't know, never counted but it couldn't be more than that.

There wasn't much written about their marriage and sometimes, I get the feeling that Itani was speeding up during this portion of the book. It was like she did not want to focus on this part too much because it was not a romance book.

Then Jim went to war. And Grania has to settle for life alone, waiting...and waiting....and waiting for her 2-week-old husband to come back from a war that he so eagerly wants to fight. Here, Itani excels.

The story about the war was amazingly detailed and some parts were totally gruesome. As a woman, I am proud that a woman can write as compeling a story like this one. It all seems so real. Imaginative readers will have the time of their lives reading about mutilated body parts and bodies of soldiers in the war being blown into smitterins. Even I was taken aback with her forthright style of writing. The proud young men sent to war soon became wary of the world as the war changes them - they become old almost overnight.

This book is definitely a good read and most readers would agree that their story is touching and moving. But at times, the pace of the writing and story gets so slow that I would rather knit. That's why the review ratings for this book is only 3 and half stars. If not for the pace of the book, I would have given this book 5 for storyline and writing style.

For those who loves gripping tales of loss, of sadness and grave stories of struggles - here, this one is definitely for you!

:: Deafening - Frances Itani