El profesor Desmond Bates se acogió a la jubilación anticipada, pero no la disfruta. Añora la rutina fecunda del año académico y ha perdido el interés por la investigación. El tardío éxito profesional y el aspecto rejuvenecido de su mujer cobran cada vez mayor pujanza. Pero estos descontentos no son nada comparados con la congoja de la pérdida auditiva, que es una fuente constante de fricción doméstica y de dificultad social. Divertida y conmovedora, La vida en sordina es un brillante relato de los esfuerzos de un hombre por asumir la sordera y la muerte, la vejez y la mortalidad, la comedia y la tragedia de la existencia humana.

I always enjoy David Lodge. He's one of those writers who is extremely good at seeing--and writing about--social interactions, men and women, parent and child...and he's funny on top of that. Deaf Sentence has the added bonus of bringing deafness and linguistics into the mix, adding two more layers to those relationships. ( )

Herlezen, daarom geen uitvoerige bespreking. Leuk, spits, een beetje suikerzoet aan het eind, typische Lodge campus novel, maar hoofdpersoon Desmond is met emeritaat. Hij laat zich manipuleren door knappe Amerikaanse onscrupuleuze PhD studente Alex die hem kan chanteren omdat hij zijn tweede vrouw 'Fred' (Winifred, zijn koosnaam geeft aan wie de broek aan heeft) niet alles heeft verteld. Running gag, en inderdaad geestig, is zijn doofheid. Het verschil tussen death en deaf is moeilijk te horen, vandaar de titel. Daardoor ook interessante bespiegelingen over dood (zelfmoord is het thema van Alex' thesis) en doofheid, daarnaast over het tragische van blindheid versus het komische (en irritante) van doofheid. De troost van liplezen tussen gewone, onuniversitaire mensen. Desmonds vader is oud, lower middle class en benepen; hij wordt dement en sterft. Desmonds dochter krijgt een kind. Hij zelf brengt een ingrijpend bezoek aan Auschwitz. Het leven gaat door. ( )

I have conflicted feelings about Deaf Sentence. For the first hundred pages or so, I was blown away by Lodge's treatment of his subject matter, which is so authentic that it could only be autobiographical. Lodge's narrator, Desmond, is a retired academic in is mid-sixties who is slowly losing his hearing; his disease is incurable and will ultimately leave him completely without hearing. Desmond, a linguist, discusses the nature of his disease with breathtaking honesty and insight, and recounts the affects of his deafness on his marriage, his academic career, and his relationships with others, including his father.

Deaf Sentence is a novel in diary entries and, occasionally, apologetically, in the third person ("I feel a fit of the third person coming on"). When it's good, it is very, very good, but Lodge is balancing too many plot lines: we have Desmond and his wife, Desmond and the eccentric graduate student, Desmond and his father, Desmond and himself. Lodge technically wraps up each each plot trajectory, but the book is a slim 300 pages, and it felt like a squeeze to close each story.

The sensitivity with which Lodge writes of deafness makes this book a wonderful read for those interested in hearing loss, but the plot was lacking and somewhat unsatisfying. ( )

Thoughtful and amusing excerpts about high frequency deafness which helped me understand better what going deaf feels like. Full growing characters were created. I enjoyed. ( )