“All Eyes: A Memoir of Deafness”
Author: Bainy B. Cyrus
Recently I came across the title “All Eyes: A Memoir of Deafness” by author Bainy B. Cyrus. After reading the book’s synopsis I was immediately intrigued and even though “All Eyes: A Memoir of Deafness” is the author’s personal memoir this book seems to fall into the Health/Self-Help Category.
In “All Eyes: A Memoir of Deafness” Bainy shares her personal story with us. She takes us back in time and through her words the reader is able to experience the life Bainy lived, growing up, as a hearing impaired individual. She was firmly caught between two worlds, the hearing and the deaf, and at times it seemed as if she felt she did not belong in either one of them. The first learning establishment that Bainy attended was Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, MA and that’s where she learned to speak. That’s also where she met two girls who became life-long friends and she shares with us the importance of those friendships. From there we follow along as the rest of her life unfolds. We watch as she learns about language development, we cheer as we see her graduate from college and we are ecstatic as we see her fierce independence and determination as she finally comes into her own. The awareness and technology in the 1960s and 1970s is not what it is today and even though I don’t personally know the author I’m immensely impressed by the woman she has become.
In summary, I give “All Eyes: A Memoir of Deafness” a five-star rating. I found it to be a truly remarkable story and I’m grateful to have been asked to read/review it. Let me also just say that Bainy B. Cyrus is a fantastic writer. Her words and the story flow smoothly. Her descriptions of people, places, events, feelings, et cetera are nothing if not riveting. She has obviously mastered the art of the English language even though she had to learn it from a completely difference aspect than most of us who can hear. An eye-opening book on many different levels…