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Hands of My Father: Summary and book reviews of Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg, plus links to an excerpt from Hands of My Father and a biography of Myron Uhlberg.

Hands of My Father Hands of My Father
A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love
by Myron Uhlberg
Hardcover: Feb 2009,
256 pages.

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Critics' Opinion:   very good
Readers' Rating:  Not Rated
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Book Summary

“Does sound have rhythm?” my father asked. “Does it rise and fall like the ocean? Does it come and go like the wind?”

Such were the kinds of questions that Myron Uhlberg’s deaf father asked him from earliest childhood, in his eternal quest to decipher, and to understand, the elusive nature of sound. Quite a challenge for a young boy, and one of many he would face.

Uhlberg’s first language was American Sign Language, the first sign he learned: “I love you.” But his second language was spoken English—and no sooner did he learn it than he was called upon to act as his father’s ears and mouth in the stores and streets of the neighborhood beyond their silent apartment in Brooklyn.

Resentful as he sometimes was of the heavy burdens heaped on his small shoulders, he nonetheless adored his parents, who passed on to him their own passionate engagement with life. These two remarkable people married and had children at the absolute bottom of the Great Depression—an expression of extraordinary optimism, and typical of the joy and resilience they were able to summon at even the darkest of times.

From the beaches of Coney Island to Ebbets Field, where he watches his father’s hero Jackie Robinson play ball, from the branch library above the local Chinese restaurant where the odor of chow mein rose from the pages of the books he devoured to the hospital ward where he visits his polio-afflicted friend, this is a memoir filled with stories about growing up not just as the child of two deaf people but as a book-loving, mischief-making, tree-climbing kid during the remarkably eventful period that spanned the Depression, the War, and the early fifties.

Book Reviews

Very Good BookBrowse - Beth Hemke Shapiro
Readers cannot help but be drawn into this poignant reminiscence, and long after the book's pages are shut, Myron Uhlberg and his family will continue to inspire.
Full Review Members Only (members only, 1113 words).


Good  Publishers Weekly
...a well-crafted, heartwarming tale of family love and understanding.

Good  School Library Journal (Adult Books for Teens)
Teens who enjoy history, historical fiction, memoirs, or books about people who are differently abled should all enjoy this.

Very Good  Booklist
Starred Review. Heartfelt...[Uhlberg] describes significant episodes of his early life with artful economy and sincere emotion.

Very Good  Entertainment Weekly - Myron Uhlberg
In the retelling, as in his upbringing, actions speak louder than words. B+.

Very Good  Christian Science Monitor - Marilyn Gardner
Uhlberg’s poignant story of devotion and responsibility is a love letter of sorts to his late parents. It opens a window into a world of isolation and “eternal silence” unimaginable to most people. Calling sign a language of the heart, he elevates it to something approaching an art form, saying, “It is for me the most beautiful, immediate, and expressive of languages, because it incorporates the entire human body.”

Author Blurb  Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and Run.
In telling the story of his very unique childhood, Myron Uhlberg has created a book that is universal. His feelings of love and responsibility, of shame and enormous pride, can teach us all something about being a member of a family. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t love this book.

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