From the time I was little I knew my mom had a 'bad' ear. When eventually her other ear began to fail she started using a hearing aid. With that and lip reading she got along pretty well. When macular degeneration took most of her sight it was a whole different thing and I often had to 'translate' what she was told by others. Hearing loss seemed inevitable and when I visit at The Village I always speak louder than normal. This book gave me a whole new awareness of deafness. We are having a hearing loss epidemic in this country and its victims are younger and younger. Bouton was good at faking her deafness in the left ear for a long time. But when her right ear began to let her down it became harder and harder. This book tells about the struggle, the cost and the shame she dealt with. She was an editor at The New York Times when it happened and the ways in which she tried to cover it up was both ingenious and sad. She also shares the stories of others. Hearing loss can happen at any age and can be the result of genetics, illness and all of that loud music we all danced to. An interesting read if you like non-fiction.
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