Product Description

"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 felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect--a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well. Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91317 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In what PW judged "an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking report," neurologist Sacks scrutinizes the history of treatment of the deaf, investigates the expressive capabilities of sign language and gauges the linguistic and social pressures faced by deaf people. Illustrated.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Sacks, a neurologist and author of the popular The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat ( LJ 2/15/86), developed a serious interest in sign language and deafness after reviewing Harlan Lane's When the Mind Hears ( LJ 10/15/84 ) for the New York Review of Books . In this work, Sacks explores all facets of the deaf world--he meets with deaf people and their families and visits schools for the deaf, spending a good deal of time at Gallaudet University. As he writes, "I had now to see them in a new, 'ethnic light,' as people with a distinctive language, sensibility, and culture of their own." The work is divided into three broad sections, throughout which there are numerous, somewhat distracting footnote "excursions." Although there is a wealth of insight and information here, the book tends to drag for the average reader and may disappoint fans of Sacks's previous best seller. Recommended for scholars and graduate collections.
- Debra Berlanstein, Towson State Univ., Baltimore
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Fascinating and richly rewarding--. Sacks is a profoundly wise observer."--The Plain Dealer

"One cannot read more than a few pages of Sacks without seeing something in a new way. His breadth of understanding and expression seems limitless."--Kansas City Star

"A remarkable book, penetrating, subtle, persuasive--. [It] will likely become a classic."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- Review

Customer Reviews

Not my favorite
I loved some of his other books like "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" and his autobiography so this was a dissappointment. I didn't even finish it, not rivited to the page as I was by other books.

Struggling to read!
This book is extremely difficult to wade through as there are an endless amount of footnotes and one feels as if they will never get to the "real" story. There is, however, a lot of valuable historical information about deafness and the obstacles the deaf population has had to endure. Many times during the reading of this book, I was struck with the awareness that I hadn't even considered certain aspects of living in a hearing world as a deaf person that seemed obvious upon reading them. The book is enlightening but a struggle to read.

Life-affirming, life-changing, must-read!
Stop whatever you're doing and read this right now. More than any of Sachs' wonderful books, it changes the way you perceive. A feast of ideas, a beautiful tribute to the genius of sign language, and a slap in the face for the hearing majority, who for so long have assumed that to hear is to fully understand. Not just a book; Seeing Voices is an essential experience.