Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Train Go Sorry
I've been taking a small break from Little Women and have been reading the book Train Go Sorry religiously. Though, I do need to break that habit of starting other books in the middle of ones I am currently reading. I have since finished Train Go Sorry, and I enjoyed it a lot. It follows a four different stories during different times, who are all connected by one person. I think this book qualifies as non-fiction, though it is written through the eyes of one person, so it reads as a fiction book. The one constant through the book is the Lexington School for the Deaf, where the author of the book, Leah Hager Cohen, grew up and where her father, Oscar, is superintendent. The four stories are told in different chapters on a rotating basis. One chapter focuses on Leah's personal life; her childhood growing up in a school for the deaf when she and her family is hearing, her family's history, including the small biographies of her deaf grandparents, and her career as a sign language interpreter. The second chapter focuses on James, an inner city poor black student at Lexington, and his success at the school. There is also background on his family, including a whole chapter dedicated to his brother Joseph, who is in jail. The last chapter is of him graduating, leaving you wanting to know how his life turns out. Another story in the book follows Sofia, a deaf russian immigrant who does very well at Lexington. She struggles keeping her two lives separate, though. She wants to pursue the life of her deafness, including wanting to go to a deaf university when she graduates. However she is also present in her family life, with strict Jewish-Russian parents who are embarrassed about her deafness. The last set of chapters have to do with Lexington itself, and all of the changes it undergoes as the deaf movement in America is changing as well. Lexington used to be an oral school, meaning it taught deaf kids to speak and read lips, to better communicate in the hearing world, but with the deaf pride movement gaining steam, Lexington decides to allow, and even require, sign language classes for teachers and students. This book was really good, and very well structured. I learned a lot about the deaf world, something I am very interested in, and about the struggles deaf people face everyday. I loo
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First, nice blog page. I really like your background and how you've set everything up--it all looks very cool.
ReplyDeleteSecond, nice post too. This sounds like a book that I would like to read. I did not know that there ever was a deaf pride movement, and I would like to learn more about the deaf world. That is something I often forget exists, so I think it would be beneficial for me to read this book and gain some insight into, as you said, the struggles deaf people face everyday.
I like that you talked about the structure of the book. Personally, I love stories--true or fictional-- that are organized as separate stories that are connected by a common thread. I think that is a very cool technique writers use, and is something I would like to experiment with in my own writing.
what Grace said
ReplyDeletehaha no I kid I kid! I do agree with what she said though, your blog is very put together and it makes it a nice, pleasant surprise to read your blog. This post is, as your posts always are, very nice and gives me a good sense of what the book is like, how you feel about it and what you like/don't like about it. I have heard a few things about Deaf Schools, but I never really understood how those work and what it is like there. I think that for this particular subject, a school for the Deaf and the Superintendent and Leah, that hearing stories from multiple students is a very good writing style because it is almost like a series of interviews. If you want to learn about a school and what goes on there and what it's like on the inside, what better way than asking students their personal stories? Again very nice Emily, pleasure reading.
ReplyDeleteI have the same bad habit of starting and stopping books while I am reading other books--it is like book-ception!
ReplyDeleteI personally love when authors or movie directors weave together different stories. Actually, I take that back. I don't always like it. Sometimes when a book switches points of views with the chapters, it feels like each person's story is choppy and sometimes stagnant. I think the trick that makes this technique work is to have some sort of common factor that unites each story, that way they can move forward together.
I believe you take sign language, right? I think reading a book that centers around deaf culture is a great way to understand sign language and its cultural importance better. I used to watch Switched at Birth which despite being a cheesy and not too well-written TV show, did teach me a cool thing or two about deaf culture.
Another aspect of the book that is interesting is how the author chose such diverse perspectives. It is a great combination to have each character be so similar yet also so different to one another. If this book is non-fiction the author was very lucky to have such amazing diversity present in her life!
One thing that I am curious about, what is the significance of the title? Does it relate to any concept or event in the book? From the synopsis you provided I didn't really see any connection, so I assume it must have a deeper meaning that maybe you picked up on by reading the whole book.
I am intrigued by the idea of it being non-fiction -- is it just fiction where Cohen draws from her own experiences or did she research? I also wonder what made you pick this book up (I understand needing a break from Little Women) -- did someone recommend it?
ReplyDeleteI like the premise behind this book. The fact that a story can be constructed through lots of different perspectives gives the reader a more realistic idea of what has actually happen. I think of a detective perusing through the case files of different suspects to truly figure out what happened at the crime. A similar perspective shift is used in the book I am reading, It by Stephen King. In this book the perspective switches to every character who has ever dealt with the monster, It. I think this has a big reason why I am so invested in this story.
ReplyDelete