Words for a Deaf Daughter and Gala: A Fictional Sequel - (American Literature) by Paul West (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- This volume brings together two of Paul West's best books: his critically acclaimed "Words for a Deaf Daughter" (1970), a nonfiction account of West's deaf and brain-damaged daughter Mandy at age eight, and "Gala" (1976), a novel about a writer named Wight Deulius who brings his handicapped teenage daughter Michaela from England to America for a visit.
- About the Author: Paul West (February 23, 1930) is an English-born novelist, literary historian and poet, the author of 24 novels, who has lived in America since the early 1960s.
- 416 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, General
- Series Name: American Literature
Description
Book Synopsis
This volume brings together two of Paul West's best books: his critically acclaimed "Words for a Deaf Daughter" (1970), a nonfiction account of West's deaf and brain-damaged daughter Mandy at age eight, and "Gala" (1976), a novel about a writer named Wight Deulius who brings his handicapped teenage daughter Michaela from England to America for a visit. While Words is an account of Mandy's diagnosis and treatment, Gala is "the scenario of a wish-fulfillment" (as West writes in the preface), a continuation of the father and daughter's joyful investigation of the richness of life and its amazing possibilities. Ranging across natural history and astronomy in his effort to understand his daughter's handicap, West finds in Mandy/Michaela an irrepressible and unpredictable guide to the mysteries of the universe. Brought together in the same volume, the books also allow a unique look at how nonfiction and fiction techniques can be used to the same ends in the hands of a master of prose.
Review Quotes
..". a rare celebration of the human spirit that will move thousands of readers." --?"Publishers Weekly"
"["Gala" is] wildly eloquent. Paul West... has style as full of exotic ingredients as God's bouillabaisse and, in its references to nature, as comprehensive as Noah's inventory.... He has thrown a mental party for his readersa gala, a festivity that links two human beings to the constellations." --?Edmund White, "New York Times Book Review"
"West shines best when he dares to invade those close to home and heart. "Gala," a novel in which he attempts to jimmy the lock on his deaf daughter Mandy's closed world, tells of their joint attempt to build a basement model of the Milky Way. From this domestic conceit West launches headlong into the more rarefied precincts of brain biochemistry, astrophysics, and linguistics, yet the sum is anything but dry meditation; his prose burns with the incandescent passion only a parent could muster." --?Albert Mobilio, "Voice Literary Supplement"
.".. a rare celebration of the human spirit that will move thousands of readers." --? "Publishers Weekly"
"[ "Gala" is] wildly eloquent. Paul West... has style as full of exotic ingredients as God's bouillabaisse and, in its references to nature, as comprehensive as Noah's inventory.... He has thrown a mental party for his readersa gala, a festivity that links two human beings to the constellations." --?Edmund White, "New York Times Book Review"
About the Author
Paul West (February 23, 1930) is an English-born novelist, literary historian and poet, the author of 24 novels, who has lived in America since the early 1960s. He now (in 2012) resides in upstate New York with his wife, the writer, poet and well-known naturalist Diane Ackerman.?