I really like Cohen's writing style, even though the narrative was totally disjointed. I don't know that she went "inside a deaf world" so much as provided vignettes of a particular deaf place. They were beautiful vignettes though; I was also very interested in her musings on being a hearing person in Deaf places. Her father had gained respect and acceptance despite being hearing by being a native signer with Deaf parents, while she was both hearing and a non-native signer which put her even further outside the community. Her grappling with even the idea of being an interpreter - that interpreters of every other language except ASL will only translate into their native language because one can only truly grasp all the nuance of meanings of a language if you learned it from birth - really got me thinking about the idea of hearing interpreters who aren't native signers, most of them, acting as an imperfect link between hearing and Deaf worlds. Very interesting. ( )

Interesting view of the deaf world from a hearing daughter. Much like Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg. Mama will like this one. ( )

Oh man! I finished this book and forgot to journal on it. That's really frustrating, especially since only one of the things I wanted to say made it into notes. (The only one that did was "Saw there was a story on NPR this morning about Cochlear Implants Redefine What It Means To Be Deaf. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/08/1502458)

Being the daughter of a severely hearing impaired woman, and a woman who has hearing issues herself, I was very interested in reading this book. the historical bits were what grabbed me the most -- the founding of the LExingtion School for the deaf and it's early days. I also was moved by some of the stories, challenges, and sheer determination of the students written about in this book, but the history buff in me won out, and that's what I remember most.

I've spent 40 minutes on internet searching for the link to a marvelous show we saw last year, which featured the story of a deaf Jewish girl in Germany at the onset of WWII. If you have time, check out this link: ( )

These days, one of the reasons I read is to learn. I hope that whether the book is fiction or non-fiction it will give me insight into something I'm ignorant of. This book definitely delivered.

Using a school in New York, which the author has a connection to, and the faces of staff, students, and her own education within the deaf community, Leah Cohen helped educate me about the challenges, education, medical aids, politics, and triumphs of the deaf.

This book was always interesting, often fascinating, sometimes touching, and a bit sad. Some of the quotes I marked:

"It took a moment for the meaning of her broad, bluntly formed syllables to sink in. As a young deaf woman, she had been judged unfit, incapable even of naming her own children."

"And because deaf children do not acquire an aural, spoken language naturally -- they must be taught ever minute element that hearing children absorb effortlessly -- they are sent to school with no language system at all. A bit of English and a few crude homemade signs were the only tools that most of my classmates possessed for making sense of the world."

On Cochlear implants: "During implantation, the tiny hairs of the inner ear that normally activate the auditory nerve get torn and crushed. Once this has happened, the effects are irreversible; even if the device is removed, any residual hearing that might have existed will have been obliterated. So if the implant is unsuccessful -- the definition of success including not only healthy recovery from surgery but also learning how to interpret speech from the implant's electrical signals by working with rehabilitation specialists, who may include audiologists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, and educators -- the child worn't ever be able to benefit from a regular hearing aid."

"The National Association of the Deaf rejects the representation of deaf people as having an impairment; it characterizes them instead as having enhanced vision. If we lived in a society that did not regard hearing people as the norm, these differences might not constitute deprivations. In fact, in a society that regarded deafness as the norm, it is likely that hearing people would be at a disadvantage. But hearing people dominate our society; it is hearing people' gaze that determines reality. Within this reality, deaf people are disabled." ( )

This book is an outstanding view into deaf culture: the issues involved in educating deaf children, the debate over whether or not being deaf is a disability or a cultural group, the ambivalence of a deaf person trying to live in two different cultures: deaf and hearing.

Leah Cohen grew up with an inside view to the deaf world--she had deaf grandparents, her father taught and ran one of the largest deaf schools in the United States. She is brutally honest about showing both sides of many debates about deaf education, deaf culture, and the hearing world's response to both. She does not provide the answers to these debates but rather illustrates the issues by shadowing two students in their high school years both in the deaf school and at their hearing parents' homes. I was left wondering if deafness is a culture or a disability, but I was left with a greater understanding of the deaf and how they view themselves and how the rest of the world views the deaf. I now question the mainstreaming of deaf students in our public schools as Cohen clearly demonstrates how mainstreaming would not meet the social (cultural?) and educational needs of deaf children.

Train Go Sorry was written 15 years ago. I wonder what happened to James, the black inner-city kid. Did he rise above the poverty/gang/drug/crime culture to which his hearing brother succumbed? Where did he end up living and working? Did he get married? Have children? I have similar questions about Sofia. How has the internet and cell phones with text messaging, blogging, face-booking affect deaf people who generally are behind in writing and reading English? How has technology changed communication amongst the deaf and between the deaf and hearing worlds? I wish Cohen would write a follow-up to this book to answer these questions.

This book is a must read for anyone who knows a deaf person or who is a student of deaf studies. ( )