Customer Reviews

What the Deaf Mute Heard Movie Tie In

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Why is G.D.Gearino not more publicly recognized as a fantastic writer and storyteller as he so deserves to be with his novel What the Deaf Mute Heard? In the age of Stephen King and Danielle Steel, I suppose there is not room for true talent and thus, the secret of Gearino is kept all too well. I have never visited the South myself, but was immeadiately swept into the compelling world of Sammy Ayers, Jenkins the bus manager, and the rest of the characters portrayed here so vividly. Gearino's language, thoughts, and feelings expressed through Sammy's eyes are some that will not soon be forgotten, my favorite being, "If you can't make fun of death, then what's the point of living?" The story was truly original and one of such inspiration and triumph that it is unthinkable that this accomplishment should go unnoticed. And while Steven King charges six dollars a pop for the new 150 page enstallment in his atrociously written trilogies, plots, characters, and st! orytelling such as Gearino's, should be deemed priceless.

It is easy to ignore deaf-mutes. They are just another type of handicapped people in the world. In the book What The Deaf-Mute Heard, Sammy Ayres, a ten-year-old boy, was abandoned in a bus depot. He seemed invisable to everyone. Unbeknownst to most people, Sammy only acted as a deaf mute. Truth was, he could hear and speak clear as a bell. This allowed for folks to talk in front of him and even expose their private thoughts as if he wasn't there.

The bus commisioner Jenkins and the diner owner took him under their wing. When he grew up, he became the town handy man, and was used by everyone to do chores around their homes. Because he was "deaf", he became privy to a church insurance fund scam. It became apparent to him that he may have to decide whether to expose himself and the people involved.

One of the people involved with the scam was Tolliver Tynan. He was a rich arrogant snob who had always been a thorn in Sammy's side.

I enjoyed this book because the characters were fully developed. Reading about their impact on Sammy's life convinces you you've known them all your life.

Some scenes from the book are for more mature audiences. The TV movie based on the book left out scenes that showed Sammy's "coming of age", such as Sammy going to school with Tolliver bullying him around. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I think you would too.

G.D. Gearino's novel "What the Deaf-Mute Heard" is kinda goofy, but worth the reading time. It tells the story of young Sammy Ayers who wakes up on a bus only to find his mother gone. He rides the bus to the last stop all the way into Barrington, Alabama. When the owner at the time, Jenkins, finds him, he decides to hold on to Sammy just in case somebody comes to get him. Nobody does. When Sammy learns that his mother won't come get him, he decides to unofficially settle in. He enrolls in school where he meets the biggest pain of his entire life: Tolliver Tynan, the local brat. Eventually, the book skips ahead a few years, where the world is questioning something huge. Who is greater? Jesus or John Lennon? Yes fans, this is set in the forties-sixties. Anyways, Sammy overhears Tolliver discussing a major road change that would cost the entire church insurance fund, and decides to report it. Now you have to undertand, this is coming from a man who has hardly said a word in 50 years. The story jumps around from being in the 40's right up to the big bonfire where they burn the albums. That's what makes the book unique. It tells as if Sammy's your grandpa. You can honestly say that if you ever hear a story from your grandpa he skips around. All in all, it's a good book, and worth the reading time. Oh and one more thing, this is not a book for the young ones. He doesn't hold anything back. I recommend for 10 and up.

I agree wholeheartedly that G D Gearino should be a much more recognized author. This guy has a wonderful style of writing-reminding me somewhat of another favorite author of mine - Dominick Dunne. I truly hated for the book to end. At times it was totally laugh out loud funny - which doesn't happen for me while reading very often. His writing style just keeps you hanging on and wanting to read more-therefore always keeping your curiosity up. The story was great - this is one of my favorite books ever! This book will NOT be passed on to the thrift shops - I will read it again.

I agree wholeheartedly that G D Gearino should be a much more recognized author. This guy has a wonderful style of writing-reminding me somewhat of another favorite author of mine - Dominick Dunne. I truly hated for the book to end. At times it was totally laugh out loud funny - which doesn't happen for me while reading very often. His writing style just keeps you hanging on and wanting to read more-therefore always keeping your curiosity up. The story was great - this is one of my favorite books ever! This book will NOT be passed on to the thrift shops - I will read it again.

I love this book! I am 13 I heard it on tape 4 (at age 9) years ago and the name and story has stayed with me. I thought it was a great idea! what if all people thought that you could not hear them? I thought this book had a great human nature as well as a great plot that just gets thicker and thicker I hope more people read this book. book lover to the sole, Megan

This story, with all the heartbreak endured by the lead character Sammy, could have been very moving, but his caustic point of view renders it very cold instead. The plot points were subtly foreshadowed and cleverly woven, so that the author's story holds one's cerebral attention. The author's voice is clear, his wry humor enjoyable, and the personal story works well set against the larger backdrop of a changing southern culture. But never did I really care what happened to Sammy or any of the others. It seems as though the disconnect between Sammy and his own soul is never bridged, even at the story's end, and I wonder if this same detachment exists in the author himself. The female characters serve a strictly sexual function and remain less than fully human, which may be another manifestation of the author's detachment from emotion. As I read I hoped there would be some degree of healing and thus a character arc that stirred or otherwise rewarded me as reader, but Sammy ended as much the same man he had been all along -- embittered, impressed with his own cleverness, but having learned little from a life lived in emptiness. The author shows enough promise that I would give him another chance; but if the next novel suffers the same flaws I might not make it to the end of that book.

This is a story well told, but it may not be the story you really want to read. Concerns you may want to consider include (1) a pervasive, chronic (though humorous) cynicism, (2) pornographic content, and (3) a lack of counterpoint to character viewpoints which occasionally border on the criminal.

If you were enchanted with the touching Hallmark story of a young boy who becomes the warm-hearted, caring confidant of those who think he can't hear. . . you probably need to look elsewhere. That is not Gearino's story (though that movie is very loosely based on Gearino's characters and events).

Gearino's Sammy Ayers is a cynical, emotionally scarred and hardened man who claims he has not had more than a few minutes of real joy in his life. Most of the characters are scarred or overwhelmed by life in one way or another, such that no one is really able to help Sammy much--nobody except maybe a lawyer. It is a book about brokenness in life which is only momentarily alleviated through revenge, a cynical recognition of irony, or occasionally in the joy of a well-turned phrase.

The cynicism of the story is related with a sort of nonchalant humor, and the clever and ironic combination of details and events that build to the story's conclusion keep the reader engaged, in spite of the dark tone.

Although some reviewers have suggested this book for young people, it should be noted that there is some adult sexual content. This work describes a pornographic act involving food and a kitchen utensil; one of the characters finds it emotionally disturbing just to have watched "a woman treated that way." The story also includes accounts of Sammy's first encounter and continued experiences as a customer of prostitution.

Gearino does a good job of helping us understand and sympathize with a cynical, jaded soul. However, he provides little counterpoint or redemption for Sammy--perhaps just a hint in the last pages, but only a hint. Even if it weren't for the sexual content, the lack of hope or counterpoint to Sammy's jaded view of life make this really questionable as something to recommend to young people without appropriate counterpoint discussion.

I never received my order #103-3000625-328246, scheduled to be delivered between October 19 and November 3. Today is November 13.

PLEASE ADVISE.

Virginia Ober