True Biz by Sara Novic

December 22, 2022

True Biz by Sara Novic

True biz: American Sign Language expression that means really, seriously, honest truth

At the River Valley School for the Deaf, the students are just like kids everywhere: they want to pass their courses, go to parties, and hook up with one another. They also wish their parents, school administrators, and politicians would stop telling them what is the right thing for them. Especially the ones who are not deaf. Charlie is a transfer student with an unsuccessful cochlear implant. Her beauty pageant mother is desperate for her to be "normal" at any cost and pushed for the implant, not allowing Charlie to learn sign language. Austin is another student at the school, from a family with a genetic history of deafness and intermarrying with other deaf people. His world is turned upside down when his sister is born hearing. Eliot is Austin's roommate, whose mother resorted to faith healing to heal his deafness with disastrous results. When the school principal learns that local officials want to close the school and integrate the students into the public school system, she struggles to save the school, the students and her marriage.

There is so much here: coming of age, the deaf community and culture, family wanting to do what they think is best, use of sparse resources for the needs of a small percentage of the population. There is also the history of the deaf community, including standard American Sign Language versus Black American Sign Language (as well as sign language in other countries), plus the many problems with cochlear implants which are well-known to the manufacturers but hidden from the deaf community. Book clubs could spend hours or even multiple sessions talking about these topics.

As a hearing person, I never realized there was so much controversy within the deaf community. I know one person with a cochlear implant and another who was approved for an implant but opted not to get it. The person who did get the implant said it helped in some situations but certainly didn't give them great hearing. Not sure whether they regret getting the implant or not.

A really interesting read, highly recommended.

Cochlear implant