Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World [Paperback]

Leah Hager Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 1995

This portrait of New York's Lafayette School for the Deaf is not just a work of journalism. It is also a memoir, since Leah Hager Cohen grew up on the school's campus and her father is its superintendent. As a hearing person raised among the deaf, Cohen appreciates both the intimate textures of that silent world and the gulf that separates it from our own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Combining memoir and reportage, Cohen provides a sensitive, intimate portrait of a New York City school for the deaf and the issues facing the deaf community. Cohen is not deaf, but her father heads the Lexington School, and she grew up there. She tracks the progress of two students: Sofia, a Russian immigrant bravely learning a second sign language and a new American world; and ghetto-raised James, who finds stability after moving into the school dormitory. Cohen analyzes the fierce debates over mainstreaming the deaf, the value of oralism and whether new cochlear implants rob the deaf of their culture. She tenderly recalls her deaf grandparents, probes her father's dilemmas, reports on her frustrated romance with a deaf man and her work as an interpreter in a program for deaf adults at the City University of New York. She portrays sign language with wonderfully tactile prose--the word "silence," for example, is signed with "austere arcs." If Cohen's narrative is disjointed, her commitment and her descriptive gifts make her book memorable.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-Cohen draws upon her experiences as the hearing grandchild of deaf immigrants to combine personal stories of hearing-impaired individuals with related aspects of deaf culture. Using her first home and her father's place of employment, the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York City, to connect characters and experiences, she shares tales of activities familiar to young adults-boring classes, the school play, selling ads for the yearbook, graduation. The only difference for these students is that they cannot hear and cannot speak the language of the hearing world. Through Cohen, readers share in the challenges, frustrations, fears, triumphs, and joys of achievement not only of these young people, but, through historical vignettes, of her grandparents as well. This perspective allows readers to determine how (or if) life has changed for the deaf in America. A careful reading of Train Go Sorry provides exposure to the urban poor and our country's many immigrants (both past and present), making this a resource suitable for sociology or history students interested in viewing the American melting pot through the eyes of a group of people with a silent past.
Janis Ansell, Tidewater Association Hearing Impaired Children (TAHIC), Virginia Beach, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679761659
• ISBN-13: 978-0679761655
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases > Physical Impairments
  • #88 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Sign Language

More About the Author

Leah Hager Cohen is the author of four non-fiction books, including Train Go Sorry and Glass, Paper, Beans, and three novels, most recently House Lights. Among the honors her books have received are New York Times Notable Book (four times); American Library Association Ten Best Books of the Year; Toronto Globe and Mail Ten Best Books of the Year; and Booksense 76 Pick.

She holds the Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review.

www.leahhagercohen.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful Look at the Deaf World, April 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. Leah Hager Cohen has managed to create a portrayal of the Deaf Community which is thought provoking and interesting. Anyone with a connection to the Deaf Community ought to read this book. Cohen comes from an extreme viewpoint of inclusion being wrong for the Deaf Community and Deaf children. However, in this book she is able to portray, in a passionate way, the importance of the Deaf Community for Deaf people without pushing her views on inclusion. Cohen creates an atmosphere of warmth and companionship within her text that speaks out in a louder voice than any argument on the street against inclusion

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend this book, April 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. Once I started it I could not put it down. Leah Hagar Cohen described the school, the deaf students and their teachers, her family all so well that I felt like I was there with her walking down the school's corridors. I really felt like I got to know the people that she focused on and appreacited her sharing her own personal story about her contact with the deaf community.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Train Go What?, July 28, 2005

By 

sml - See all my reviews

This review is from: Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World (Paperback)

Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen gives an interesting view of multiple peoples lives connected to the deaf world. The book reveals several stories that take us down the path the deaf community has taken to get to its present state and how at the same time the deaf culture is on the decline due to technology advancements i.e. cochlear implants and hearing aids.

The title is a little confusing for people who don't know much about the deaf community and ASL. Train go sorry essentially means "you missed the boat". The book tries to portray how the people in the deaf community or those around them have at times have missed the boat throughed failed meetings with family members, relationships, and everyday interactions with the hearing world.

This book at times jumps around and might make it difficult for some to read. However, when you look at it from an ASL lifestyle point of view the book seems to sense. Just as the deaf communities lives are jerky and not in a predicatable order at all times so is this book and I believe it is a reflection of that it is trying to show all the facets of the deaf community in any way possible including the order of the book.

If you would like to learn more about the history of the deaf community and ASL this book is for you. However, I would caution that technology has advanced and time has gone on for the ASL community. If you want to be current on these subjects I suggest doing some research. I enjoyed the book but I probably wouldn't have picked it out to read on my own it wasn't a required reading for a class.