Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
..Now I see how one was unable to value the passing time., 14 Jun 2008
I have played variations on the phonetic near-equivalence of 'deaf' and 'death' -- writes David Lodge and it seems that this is the main thrust of his latest book.
The main character, Desmond Bates, who is a retired professor of linguistics is battling with his deafness and realising as he writes his journal, and changes from first to third person from time to time, that the 'deaf sentence' in the title is to him a kind of death sentence as well.
He plays with this concept and explores death and deafness in many walks of life.
'This seems to be turning into some kind of journal, or notes for an autobiography, or perhaps just occupational therapy' he says, and we realise that for David Lodge himself, suffering from deafness as he does, it is his autobiography within the autobiography of Desmond Bates.
Lodge has a masterful touch when it comes to characterisation, and greatly so in this novel.
The old father, a character whom we have met before although not the same person, in 'Nice Work' is portrayed skilfully and tenderly without any sentimentality and he is obviously based on Lodge's own father, as he hints at this in the acknowledgements at the end of the novel.
Alex Loom, the manipulative, self-absorbed student who tries to get what she wants by using her sexuality is described so well that we become fist-clenchingly angry with her many times in the course of the novel, particularly at the end.
Subsidiary characters are drawn skifully and carefully and we become part of the family as the story progresses.
Always there is the exploration of deafness and death and when Desmond visits Auschwitz, the writing is breath-taking.
Quietly, without any untoward emotion or jarring expressions of horror, David Lodge takes us through the cold and the darkness, through 'the silence, a silence broken only by the crunch of my shoes on the frozen snow, the occasional sound of a dog barking in the distance, and the mournful whistle of a train'.
Until finally he comes 'to the memorial built to the victims of Auschwitz, annd on each side of it the purpose-built gas chambers and crematoria.....' and he sees a small votive candle in a red glass vessel.
This candlelight wavers through his consciousness in the next few weeks which follow and make him aware of the hope which burns in the hearts of men through all the horrors of the death sentence which all of us succumb to eventually.
There is very little humour in this book - it is an exploration of our journey through life, our physical and mental and moral weaknesses but also the possiblilty of hope and love which see us through the infirmity and indignity of old age and illness.
He quotes from Philip Larkin who was also deaf, and says:
'the sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.'
Although it sounds heavy and sad, it is one man's journal and a life lived for others as well, and David Lodge's skill in writing is such that it is a fascinating book, brilliantly conceived and structured.
Do buy it, it is well worth reading and enjoying.
Val De Beer.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You are deaf right, David, 31 Mar 2009
As a sixty something who has been losing his hearing for about ten years i was attracted to this title and how glad i am that i was. His descriptions of hearing tests , the fitting of devices [ none of which work really well ], the weird shrieks and whistles therefrom, the batteries running out at the worst times and of course the embarrassment of guessing what is being said to you and getting it totally wrong are all spot on. After reading this book i find that i am not alone in finding this loss of one of my faculties while rather sad also not short in mirth and humour. Reading this was like sharing, for the first time, this whole deaf business with a close pal.
Like our main character, Desmond Bates , i found early retiral not really enjoyable; missing the day to day pressure of business and the banter with colleagues and clients. In the early days feeling suddenly rather useless. Again his descriptions are so apt.
There is, of course, a lot more to this than the above. He illustrates the acceptance of growing old ,becoming deaf, losing a loved one with a fine, realistic, but comic touch. His sympathetic visits to his old dad's dreary home and frugal yet independent life; his fragile emotional and physical relations with his younger wife Winifred and the mysterious even younger woman Alex Loom who nearly causes the collapse of all he holds dear makes for a never a dull moment novel.
As i have said i only picked it up because of the intriguing title and i now look forward to reading more by David Lodge.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Deaf and the maiden, a dangerous combination", 21 Sep 2008
Although this novel ends with a birth and a death, for most of its pages, Deaf Sentence celebrates life, albeit one that is a little disadvantaged. Forced to retire because of his rapidly diminishing hearing, linguistics professor Desmond Bates is not exactly going through a mid-life crisis, but in the preceding months has reached a point in his life where he is subtly questioning everything. Desmond has had a fulfilling career teaching at a local northern University, and he's mostly happily married to his entrepreneurial wife Fred "Winifred" who runs a trendy design store called Décor. But even as Desmond settles into a middle-aged life, he worries about his increasingly spotty sexual performance. While Fred seems to be getting better with age, blooming into the flower of independence with a stunning new career and new look helped along by her best friend Jacci, Desmond has grown older and deafer, and subject to occasional erectile dysfunction that is exasperated by the advertisements for Viagra that daily always seem to appear in his email box.
It comes as no surprise then that Desmond, somewhat hampered by his hearing loss, falls into predictable daily routine, his communication with those around him becoming difficult at best as his family, friends and colleagues mostly stand by, confused and embarrassed most of the time and ultimately unable to relate to his misunderstandings in the conversation. With sex becoming an object of anxious rather than pleasurable anticipation, "although blindness is tragic, deafness may be comic, "Desmond receives a completely unexpected and completely disturbing call from a young and seductive student by the name of Alex Loom.
An intriguing person but a bit of an enigma. Alex is writing a thesis about suicide notes and wants Desmond to help her out. An unpredictable and frail girl with streaming blonde hair, Alex becomes ever more obsessed with obtaining Desmond's help and approval. Although Desmond makes clear moral distinctions, his life well-ordered and constricted by his marriage to Fred, he does have a darker side. The visits to Alex at her apartment, ostensibly to give her tips about her research, become ever more disturbing, with Desmond coming to the realization that she's either totally irresponsible or mentally unbalanced. Yet she seems to intuit somewhere in Desmond's psyche a fantasy lurking unsuspected and only waiting to be released.
Determined to maintain the status quo, Desmond also has his 89-year-old father, Harry once a big band musician, the responsibility for his dad's welfare lying heavily on him. He regularly travels down to London to visit Harry who lives in the old family home in the older suburb of Brickley. Living alone and dressing like a tramp, Harry lives closed up in his ramshackle house that always seems to be bathed in a sepulchral gloom. Stripped of all of his life enhancing interests, Harry's only one hobby is saving money while observing prices, and economizing on food, clothing and household bills.
While Desmond anguishes over what to do about Harry, Alex becomes his female nemesis and ultimately his arch manipulator. Indeed, Desmond curses the day that he let this unscrupulous young woman "twist him around the little finger of her flattery". To confess his dealings with her would make him look smaller in Fred's eyes even as he becomes convinced that an acknowledgement of Alex's attempted seductions would further weaken the status of his marriage. Alternating between the first and third person, Lodge's tale drifts from the serious to the humorous as Desmond tries to figure out how to get out of the dilemma of Alex. In the process this affable and kindly man ruminates and entertains the reader with his thoughts on ageing, marriage, seduction, isolation and the advantages and disadvantages of deafness. As the uncomfortable memories of Maisie, his first wife who died of cancer, whirls around him, Desmond cannot help but be a little bitter about his deafness. Even his new found new happiness with Fred has not assuaged his share of misfortunes and his sense of the discontent.
Filled with literary illusions and misunderstood irony, this novel ultimately comes across as a type of modern comedy of manners framed around the themes of life's fragility and the ease with which the marks we leave on the surface of the earth are erased. The chapters on linguistics, while obligatory for comprehending the many facets of Desmond`s character can be a bit difficult to digest, but the narrative generally moves along with sparkling dialogue that is full of guileful observations on life. Most notable for displaying for the minute and humorous details of British family life, the novels chief pleasure lies in the familiar - a chaotic Christmas dinner with the entire family present, a new years holiday at a sexy leisure resort, a chaotic dinner in a loud Italian restaurant that is filled with irritating background noise, and ruminations on Desmond's future years of tranquility with Fred, still after all that transpires, the decisive love of his life. Mike Leonard September 08.
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