My Sense of Silence

"This is a man revealing himself, touched and startled by his act of exposure, discovering and offering the old truth: every life matters. Reminding us of this is what memoir does best. . . . An engrossing contribution to the genre."--Margaret Diehl, New York Times Book Review

"Davis's new memoir focuses on how his parents' deafness affected him. He writes frankly about the difficulties he encountered, such as his inability to call his parents when he needed comfort during the night and his having to serve as their interpreter. . . . The writer also infuses his writing with humor and the sense of love and respect he developed for his parents. . . . Davis's descriptions of the richness and complexity of sign language are the most fascinating portions of the book. Highly recommended."--Library Journal

"Good memoirs with staying power are hard to find any year. One of this year's very best is . . . My Sense of Silence. Davis succeeds brilliantly in doing many things. His is an outstanding personal and cultural study of deafness as well as a savvy and moving intellectual and political autobiography."--The Bloomsbury Review

"A truly poetic reflection flanked by Davis's ambivalent and unresolved childhood. . . . Davis blends so much painstaking detail into his writing, pulling at the reader's emotions as he processes his own odd experience. The book convincingly paints the struggles of a young man who must 'recover the child, deaf-self' that he leaves behind 'merging it with [a] hearing self.'"--The Minnesota Daily

"A provocative and personal odyssey of growing up with deaf parents, remarkable for its candor, humor and originality. Davis's memories are passionate and fierce as he pieces together the stories of his family, probing the elusive relationships between childhood and adult life. Highly recommended."--Paul Preston, author of Mother Father Deaf: Living between Sound and Silence and co-director of the National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities