A Sign for Home by Blair Fell

What a lovely and beautiful story of loss, freedom, accessibility, and exploration of the sublime.

Arlo Dilly is a young DeafBlind Jehovah’s Witness who lives under his uncle’s guardianship after an incident at his accessible high school. Cyril is hired as an interpreter for Arlo when he goes to a community college writing class to help him improve his writing before leaving on a missionary trip. Cyril has been slowly spiraling into alcohol abuse after the death of his Deaf partner. Alro’s writing assignments dredge up a lot of painful memories of the high school incident and Cyril’s constant boundary-crossing led them both to try to gain more independence for Arlo.

I have always loved learning ASL. Though I’ve only taken a few classes, I’ve appreciated the ability, if poorly, to communicate with Deaf folks. What I loved about this book, written by an interpreter, because it exemplified the Deaf and DeafBlind culture, how signs are often descriptive drawings, and how the Deaf language is just that - a different language. It accurately portrayed issues that often plague the Deaf community: ignorance from hearing individuals, lack of accessibility, and abuse in a way that wasn’t preachy, but informative and plot-based.

I thoroughly enjoyed that the author described some of the important signs. How fun!

My one critique was that the end of the book felt rushed like the author was worried it was too long and just wrapped it up. The epilogue was so short and didn’t provide any warm, fuzzy resolution feelings, but rather a perfunctory explanation.

I cannot wait to read more Deaf and DeafBlind fiction! Any romances out there? - Ford