KEY POINTS:
DEAF SENTENCE
By David Lodge
Random House, $56.99
David Lodge is one of those established authors who can turn their hand to anything.
In Deaf Sentence he looks at the business of ageing, retirement, mortality and, unsurprisingly, deafness. The story begins with Desmond Bates, a retired linguistics professor addressing us from the first person and then changes with no explanation to diary form.
Still, Lodge is adept at drawing strong characters - Bates' long-suffering wife, his ailing Dad, Alex the sexy student who wants Bates to supervise her thesis.
Lodge seems to want to make the point that, "In the popular imagination, deafness is comic, as blindness is tragic, but for the deaf person himself it is no joke." Despite that, he allows his protagonist's deafness to become comedic, using the confusions of mishearing to give rise to a plethora of gags.
At times, it feels as if Deaf Sentence is trying to be relaxed about issues that are tragic, but it's still a proficient and diverting read.
