TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

A Deaf Sentence

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

For a linguistics professor to lose his hearing must be a special kind of living hell. Desmond Bates finds his entire life is changed as he decides he must retire early. "Deaf Sentence" by David Lodge is a funny, yet tragic picture, of Desmond's new life learning to cope with insufficient information. An attractive young American graduate student professes she wants his advice on her thesis, but Desmond is not sure that is all she wants. And his inability to communicate rationally gets him into all types of embarrassing social and professional situations. Then, too, he also has to cope with his 89-year-old father who is refusing to leave his familiar world, though he is really not able to manage on his own. Desmond struggles to juggle his past and current life and is forced to accept the realities of aging and mortality.

Reading The Bones
Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is faced with not only a mystery but a town's fear of devil worshippers and Wiccans. "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs begins with the discovery by a plumber of a grisly scene of animal bones, decapitated chickens and cauldrons containing beads, feathers and other relics all of which surround a skull. Shortly thereafter, the headless body of a young boy is found. The body is remarkably well preserved and residents believe that the two situations are connected. They also believe that there are devil worshippers around the area who are responsible for the deaths. Citizen vigilantes are seeking those devil worshippers as Temperance uses her science background to make sense of these two scenes and stop the hunting that may not allow some legal religious sects to continue meeting without danger and fear.

Marie Wood reviews books for The Sun. Reach her at woMarie@aol.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT