I saw the made-for-TV movie based on this book when it first aired back in 1997 and loved it. I was pleasantly surprised. The book had a much more "adult" feel, and Sammy is a fleshed out character who is not wholly sympathetic at all times. I sped through the book in one sitting. ( )

LISTEN UP READERS! This is a MUST read. It's hard to describe (kind of a Cold Sassy Tree meets To Kill a Mockingbird updated to for the 90's), but get your hands on it. ( )

What the Deaf-Mute Heard by G. D. Gearino

★ ★ ★

Synopisis: Ten-year-old Sammy Ayers awakes on a bus in Barrington, Georgia, to find that he's been abandoned by his mother. Scared and alone, he doesn't speak, leading residents to believe that he's a deaf-mute. He ends up living in the bus station, working as its janitor. At age 62, he relates the strange course of his life.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. With a big label stating it was made into a Hallmark film, I was expecting a feel good book. Because that's what Hallmark does, right? Well, while the film version may be feel good (and from reviews I've read, it is), the book is not. The main character is cynical and harsh and unforgiving. At times the book is downright crude. Not particularly a bad thing, just wasn't what I was expecting.

With that in mind, I thought the storyline and premise were good. However, I felt it was poorly done. There were too many characters that just weren't described or brought any interest, including main characters. The story is written haphazardly – jumping all over the place. It was a good attempt and delving into major topics such as racism in the south in the 1940s but none of it is truly explored. I did enjoy Sammy's (the main character) snarky and sarcastic remarks but even he never fully grew on me. In fact, by the end, he began to grind on my nerves. Whatever happy, fuzzy lessons he learns in the movie never occurs in the book. In fact, it seems he learns nothing and vindictiveness wins.

An okay book but nothing to gush about. ( )

I found this story about a young boy abandoned at a bus station totally engaging. Mr. Gearino writes well, and develops his characters solidly. I found the story compelling...I was keen to know what would happen next all the way to the end of the book.

This is a story about belonging, about how being inexplicably abandoned can shape your sense of who you are. ( )

Sometimes it’s painful to take a trip backward in time to the older South. This book returns to 1940 with its story of ten-year-old Sammy Ayers, a boy left abandoned on a bus. Waking from a sound sleep, he finds that he is in Barrington, a small town in Georgia, and his mother has disappeared. Having nowhere else to go, Sammy stays in the bus station until Jenkins, the stationmaster, begins to look after him. Totally overwhelmed by his experience, the boy doesn’t speak at all causing people around him to believe that he is a “dummy” or deaf-mute. As he grows older, he remains this way despite a life that is not easy and taunting from others.

I find the writing style of G. D. Gearino similar to that of Pete Dexter or Steve Yarbrough in how he shows us the “gritty” South with its colorful characters and their myriad imperfections. Two that particularly stood out for me were a black man named Thacker who ran his own moonshine business and a preacher named Toliver who was anything but saintly. Gearino does an especially good job of punctuating his narrative with foreshadowing and surprises as well as the occasional one-liner which had me laughing out loud. An intriguing plot and fleshed-out characters made this an especially absorbing read. ( )