2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better Deaf culture expositions exist, December 15, 2008
This review is from: MindField (Paperback)
John Egbert seeks to creatively help his Deaf community in a novel of pandemic-spread-by-terrorists plot, where historic abuses to the Deaf community, common misconceptions, and on-going failures in deaf education are revealed in a palatable way by wrapping the message in a thriller. As a member of that community I wish I could recommend it, but it doesn't thrill, and its antiquated views of technology annoy.
It is a story with a point tidily summed up by the four and a half page "Author's Notes" (written by daughter Stella Egbert) at the end of the book. The 1880 Milan Congress fostered abuse and substandard education on generations of deaf people by insisting that they be taught only by oral methods. Even today school districts suppress the native language of the Deaf community by requiring that S.E.E. instead of ASL be used in classrooms.
But Egbert fails to create excitement or tension, and the characters speak in pretty much the same voice.
An illness resulting in the profound deafness of 3 million people -- in a population today of 300 million; 28 million with some hearing impairment, and about 1.5 million profoundly deaf already! -- is an event of utterly catastrophic consequences, shutting down travel, financial systems, and most forms of communication, we're told. Published in 2006, with the story set in the near future, the author shows little awareness of how common are text messages, video relay services, electronic banking and stock trading, and email. He talks about air traffic control becoming impossible, in a day when commercial airlines already use text instructions.
Can we believe that a post-Deaf President Now generation would allow the government to send deaf people to reeducation camps.
The book needs editing in mundane ways, too. Newly deafened "guests" are being subjected to indoctrination via Power Point at a Hearing Habitat assembly. We read that the sound of the remote control alerts them to the next slide. A remote make a sound?!? How do deaf people hear it?
For students looking for a "non-instructional" way of learning about Deaf culture, this book may do it, but I recommend an Amazon search for "deaf culture", where you'll find informative and even entertaining alternatives.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a must read!, October 8, 2007
This review is from: MindField (Paperback)
john egbert surely knows how to write a detailed story! imagine if 3 million americans went deaf from a bacteria- spinal meningitis. would the situation be far worse than you think? love, love this book!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting reading that proposes a unique what-if scenario, and plays it out well, March 17, 2009
This review is from: MindField (Paperback)
Hearing is something that so many take for granted. "MindField" is the story of a terrorist plot. A rapid nationwide plague inflicts spinal meningitis throughout the country. While body count is minimal, the side effects are not, as many of the afflicted find themselves permanently without hearing. The government is faced with a rapid change, and a nation of people who can no longer hear. "MindField" is riveting reading that proposes a unique what-if scenario, and plays it out well.
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