Book Review: Different Ways of Being
Different Ways of Being. Alan Balter. Linkville Press, November 19, 2015, Trade Paperback and Kindle, 372 pages.
Reviewed by Christine Collins Cacciatore.
I recently spent many enjoyable hours reading Different Ways of Being, by Alan Balter, and I would recommend the book. It would be of particular interest to people who are deaf or have someone in their lives who is deaf, or someone who would find it thought provoking to learn about deafness.
The book is divided into several different sections. The first section introduces Willa and Robert, who have a storybook romance and before long, they are married and have a deaf son, Seth. The story concentrates mostly on Seth and his struggles and victories throughout life. Without giving away too much, Seth must confront and attempt to overcome significant physical limitations. The story becomes very dark and uncomfortable to read in parts, but only because Seth fantasizes about what kind of revenge he would like to exact on his attacker.
What is interesting is the detail the author provides when he is describing American Sign Language. I learned more about sign language than I ever thought I would, and it’s easy to imagine this author as an educator, which he is. Although educational, it was as if I was getting a lesson in American Sign Language as opposed to being able to immerse myself in the actual story. I would like to have seen a little more showing than telling in the section.
It’s easy to forget that some of the characters in Mr. Balter’s book are deaf, as he does an excellent job at first introducing the characters as either hearing or deaf, but then he skillfully weaves their hearing or lack thereof into the storyline. More than once I had to go back and reread something to find out if a hearing or deaf character was speaking.
The second part of the book introduces the characters Rachel and Angelo. Their lives are rough, to put it mildly, and they have a son, Mario. Unfortunately, once, when the new mother is getting some rest, Angelo shakes the baby to get him to quiet down. I was left wondering if this awful incident is what caused their child to be a poor student, to make poor life choices, in that as he gets older, he joins a gang. He has a vital piece of his soul missing, according to his mother, and that comes through in his words and actions. Violence amuses him and he is a frightening character who is easy to dislike.
Mario and Seth meet due to a case of mistaken identity. Mario thinks Seth is flashing gang signs and had been given, as a gang initiation, the instruction to shoot any rival gang member. Mario does not realize that what he mistakes for gang signs is actually sign language Seth uses as he walks down the street and talks to his best friend, Jacob. Mario’s mistake sends Seth spiraling down into a deep depression, and quite honestly, I wondered if he was going to pull out of it.
Sam and Mariam are the third set of characters introduced. They have a son, Anthony, who becomes Seth’s doctor and friend, and a daughter, Sarah, who also plays a significant role in Seth’s life. She is a little bit of a wild child but seems to be exactly what Seth needs.
The story then goes back to gang member and resident bad guy Mario, who gets a comeuppance of his own. Like Seth, he is forced to learn how to live life all over again after a life-altering accident. The author’s extraordinary storytelling skill made me feel sorry for a character I initially disliked.
A couple things caught my attention while reading and pulled me out of the story. First was the use of quote marks around things that did not need them. For example, “in a family way”. If a woman is in a family way, it is perfectly acceptable to just say that. Unfortunately, once you see quotes used that way a couple of times, it catches your eye and pulls you out of the story as you begin looking for the next occurrence.
Also, at times I had difficulty following the timeline. The author tends to skip back and forth in time when writing about a character and his or her life. Sometimes I had to go back a few pages for clarification, which was a little disorienting. I found it interesting, too, that sometimes it was difficult to tell that the book was about deaf culture, when it seemed to focus on how a main character dealt with life in a wheelchair and exacting revenge on the person who caused it.
What I did like about this book is that it caught me off guard several times, with either unexpected humor or an exciting turn of events. A reader always loves to be surprised and I’m no exception. As stated earlier, I also learned more about American Sign Language and the culture of deaf people than expected, along with ways in which a disabled man could have sex and children . . . probably more than I wanted to know. To his credit, however, the author describes much of what a young man in a wheelchair would have to learn to survive.
I found it fascinating to read about the remarkable ways in which the lives of the two main characters intersect. I had to suspend disbelief a couple of times at some of the choices that Seth and Mario made, but ultimately the story had a genuinely satisfying conclusion.
Great job, Mr. Balter. I enjoyed the experience and learning about a culture I knew little about. I would read other books by this author and would definitely recommend this book for readers to learn about these two fascinating main characters and the unbelievable way their lives are changed forever.