I received this book as part of a launch party with New Writing North, where the author, Sarah Marsh, treated us to a reading of the beginning of the novel. I thought I was going to love the novel, especially as the reading initially put me in mind of Hetty Sorrel from George Eliot’s Adam Bede with the focus on the word ‘peaches.’
After reading the book, I put off writing a review for a little while, and when I did sit down to set out my thoughts, the review was somewhat difficult to write. I really wanted to love this book, especially as my mother has suffered hearing loss in recent years, and I wanted to delved into the world of someone who hears nothing. I didn’t quite love the book as much as I hoped, and at times, I found it a little slow and awkward. I think, overall, the book has real merit. Here are my thoughts…
A Sign of Her Own: A Novel by Sarah Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘You miss nothing’ Ellen Lark, the central character of this novel, is told, and yet there is definitely something missing from this book that leaves the reader slightly dissatisfied. Many times I tried to identify what it was that was missing from this book, until finally it occurred to me that what is missing is melody, sound, and cadence. For Ellen is deaf, the result of a bout of scarlet fever when she was 4, and her deafness pervades the narrative of the book, leaving the reader trying to push through the hollow of silence. All the words we need are on the page, yet the silence is somewhat disconcerting. And this is what makes the book worth the effort of reading – as a reader we are truly immersed in Ellen’s lived experience of deafness, almost forced to share her reliance on the spoken word – the Visible Speech, stripped of all nuance. It gives you a real appreciation of what it is to hear the word – not just to see it, how the meaning of a word can be changed by how it is said. For me, learning to appreciate the silence, Ellen’s silence, was the real beauty of this book.
Ellen’s story intersects with that of Alexander Graham Bell, with Ellen the pupil, Bell the teacher, and the merging of historic fact with fiction has been done with considerable skill. I could have done without the constant jumping around the timeline – Ellen’s story was interesting enough without the constant going backwards and forwards, which sometimes was a little bit awkward and occasionally unnecessarily complex. Yet it is in the depiction of Ellen’s life and relationships where the novel’s true appeal lies. The relationship between Ellen and Bell is troubling, Ellen’s vulnerability as a woman struggling to make herself heard in a world where she cannot hear ripe for exploitation, especially given that Ellen constantly seeks Bell’s praise and approval, which becomes her truth.
Many times through the novel, Ellen attempts to ‘show hearing people what deaf people can do.’ It almost feels like the author is attempting to do the same – showing the reader that being deaf does not equate to being voiceless. While Marsh is successful in this quest, the book is not without flaws. That being said, I found this to be a an interesting debut, with Ellen being an engaging enough protagonist to compensate for some of the slower moments in the novel. It is worth spending the time over, and sitting in the silence of Ellen’s world.
View all my reviews
Deborah Siddoway 