Ms. Nović’s trajectory from denial to pride in her identity as a member of the deaf community is moving and compelling ... As germane and revealing as her discussions of deaf history and political inequality are, however, they can become repetitious and sometimes strident ... The personal and the political are blended throughout the author’s life, but I wish she had found a more seamless strategy in structuring her book.
For anyone who has felt the need to hide their true self, who has struggled with the demands of parenting or found themselves underestimated, Mother Tongue looks at loss and adversity and what makes moving forward possible.
Expertly threading storytelling with research ... Readers who aren’t drawn to history books may find the first half of Mother Tongue to be slower than they’d expect from a memoir ... Readers will come away from this exceptional memoir with not only a sense of Novic’s experience, but a deeper understanding of Deaf culture as a whole.
Moving and powerful ... Educational and intimate ... This beautiful memoir about how it feels to be different belongs in every public library collection.
Expansive ... Explores the intersections of deafness with a variety of cultural and historic phenomena ... Hearing readers who aren't intimately acquainted with deafness (which, as Nović points out, is the vast majority of Americans) will find it as illuminating as it is affecting ... Enlightening.
Stirring ... Lucid and rigorously researched, Nović’s memoir offers a powerful critique of the systems that have marginalized deaf Americans across the decades. It’s a sobering must-read.
