| View Larger Image | What's That Pig Outdoors?: A Memoir of Deafness | Paperbackby Henry Kisor (Author), Walker Percy (Foreword)
| List Price: | $16.00 | |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Page Count: | 288 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 01, 1991 | | Sales Rank: | 296,936th |
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Henry Kisor, a veteran journalist, twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, lost his hearing at age three. He recounts the story of his life as a deaf person in a hearing culture in this engaging memoir, which offers a fascinating perspective on both worlds. "A first-rate memoir, notable for its candor, charm, and sensitivity."--The Boston Globe. "Henry Kisor's book may well become an American classic..."--The New York Times Book Review. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 8 reviews)
|
Just an Amazing Read of Determination & Joy in Living by rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States)  5 Stars
October 27, 2005
What should our attitude be towards the deaf? Kisor gives us good insight with his memoir which is beautifully, sensitively and humorouly written. Some would term him an outcast to both the deaf culture and the hearing culture, since he lipreads and doesn't sign. Can't possibly be happy because he can't fully participate in hearing world, he's missing so much. But Kisor disagrees.
He achieved more than most hearing, having accumulated great English language skills. He demonstrates with the rare book written about deafness from a deaf author. His title is fascinating, since it is from story regarding his five-year old son and the nuances lipreading has trouble discerning.
Yes, improvements have happened and will continue with behavioral psychology and deafness, but here the spirit of the human inside is spoken of, something that no program can really guarantee success, but determination, help and support will aid.
This marvelous memoir contributes much to this cause. It is a most wonderful read for all interested in what a deaf person in a hearing world might be going through, especially the emotional strains deafness brings with it. Much to be gleaned here.
| |
A belated discovery by Harold Hungerford (Santa Rosa, CA USA) 5 Stars
June 25, 2005
I have only just caught up with this book 14 years after it was published. Kisor is very good on how he managed a life as a deaf person who operates orally in a hearing world, and manages to be quite tactful in dealing with the subject of the Deaf -- people who use sign language. He is perhaps more tactful than he really should be in discussing the ignorance of a lot of educators of the severely hearing-impaired and the rather patronizing "poor-you" attitude they often take.
I can say this because I have only a little more hearing than Kisor -- and for the same reason, meningitis at the age of 3. I am ten years older than he but remember well some of the stages he describes so accurately and honestly. Like him, I was lucky in my early teachers and in being kept away from schools for the deaf.
It does need to be said that cognitive psychologists and students of child language have learned a great deal about child language development since Kisor and I were children and even since his book was published in 1991. Their progress dates from Noam Chomsky's destruction of behaviorist notions of language almost 50 years ago. I hope very much that things have changed significantly in the education of the deaf and severely hearing-impaired.
With luck, students will recognize that Kisor is describing a bygone era. But it is an era that was and is still well worth describing.
| |
What's That Pig Outdoors by Carie Urato (Massachusetts) 5 Stars
November 29, 2004
I read this book for an ASL class in college and wow. This book is great. An amazing autobiography written by a deaf man, Henry Kisor who has managed to exist in a hearing world as a deaf man strictly by lip reading. He has been a journalist and this is amazing to me. A wonderful story written in the point of view of a deaf man and his lifelong journey to success and living in the hearing world. Reading this book has made me take a look at my life and made me feel as if I could do anything.
| |
About being Deaf by someone who is Deaf. by MeasuredFit.com 5 Stars
January 01, 2002
I read this book back in 93 when I had just lost my hearing. I was 14 and dealing with suddenly becoming deaf. Most books about Deafness are written by physicians, or parents of the deaf, or children of the deaf, and not by the deaf themselves. Kisor's stories about lipreading and growing up and just being Deaf were wonderful for me to read. It gave me hope... if he is totally Deaf and can accomplish that much, then I, with a little bit of hearing left, certainly should be able to. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone deaf who is oral, anyone late deaffened, or anyone just interested in reading about the trials and joys of a hearing loss.
| |
About being Deaf by someone who is Deaf. by MeasuredFit.com 5 Stars
January 01, 2002
I read this book back in 93 when I had just lost my hearing. I was 14 and dealing with suddenly becoming deaf. Most books about Deafness are written by physicians, or parents of the deaf, or children of the deaf, and not by the deaf themselves. Kisor's stories about lipreading and growing up and just being Deaf were wonderful for me to read. It gave me hope... if he is totally Deaf and can accomplish that much, then I, with a little bit of hearing left, certainly should be able to. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone deaf who is oral, anyone late deaffened, or anyone just interested in reading about the trials and joys of a hearing loss.
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World
by Leah Hager Cohen (Author)
This portrait of New York's Lafayette School for the Deaf is not just a work of journalism. It is also a memoir, since Leah Hager Cohen grew up on the school's campus and her father is its superintendent. As a hearing person raised among the deaf, Cohen appreciates both the intimate textures of that silent world and the gulf that separates it from our own.
| 
| Deaf Like Me
by Thomas S. Spradley (Author), James P. Spradley (Author)
| 
| Seeing Voices
by Oliver Sacks (Author)
"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought--. Sacks [is] one of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture. In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply...
| 
| A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family
by Lou Ann Walker (Author)
From the time she was a toddler, Lou Ann Walker was the ears and voice for her deaf parents. Their family life was warm and loving, but outside the home, they faced a world that misunderstood and often rejected them. "A fascinating personal testament."--Chicago Sun Times Book Review
| 
| A Journey Into the Deaf-World
by Harlan Lane (Author), Robert Hoffmeister (Author), Ben Bahan (Author)
In this comprehensive and engrossing study, three distinguished scholars of Deaf culture—one hearing, one deaf, and one coda (child of deaf adults)—offer clear, penetrating insights into the existence and makeup of the deaf world, the community whose natural language—American Sign Language in the United States—is manual and visual. Bringing the latest social and cultural findings and theories into sharp focus, the authors take us on a fascinating journey to discover what deaf culture...
|
|
|
