For the text review, scroll down.
Mother Tongue by Sara Novic is a memoir about navigating deafness, disability rights, eugenics, adoption, motherhood, and, of course, language. Novic’s hearing diminished when she was school-aged, something she tried to hide. However, an unusual heartbeat that led to fainting was less easy to shrug off, causing her body and its “lack” to make her noticeable. As a high school student, Novic found a deaf community and learned to sign, meaning her first language is English.
Novic’s memoir isn’t about her development in the deaf community but more a question of language access. After giving birth to a hearing son, Novic and her partner decide they want to adopt a child, which was always the partner’s wish—he himself was adopted and had a great experience. What follows is the process of international adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic and the hardship and race against time Novic’s family faced. Because the little boy they wanted to adopt from Thailand was also deaf but didn’t have access to sign language, his window for language learning that we all have was rapidly closing.
While it’s not uncommon for memoirs by deaf authors to include some history and culture of the deaf community, Novic shared information I had not encountered elsewhere. For example, Martha’s Vineyard is famously known as a place where everyone used to sign, whether hearing or deaf, because so many islanders were genetically deaf. It just made sense for everyone to communicate. However, it wasn’t quite the utopia people who know about Martha’s Vineyard sign language, according to Novic, but there were communities in which both hearing and deaf people signed in cooperation, including nearby Elkhart, IN, a place I’ve been to many times (and I do know deaf people who live there).
Most importantly, Mother Tongue is relevant NOW. She explains the potential effects of the second Trump administration on poor, disabled, and minority communities. Imagine if the Department of Education is dissolved as Trump wishes. What happens then to children like her adopted son who has an IEP (individual education plan) and his rights to a free public education in the least restrictive environment. On the other hand, the least restrictive environment for deaf children is not in public schools with everyone else, but in deaf schools with their language peers. Other benefits, including the Affordable Care Act and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
Really, at the heart of Mother Tongue is the importance of communication needs and what barriers are in the way of growing one’s sense of self through language. Those barriers may be medical, governmental, or educational.
This is the same Sara Novic who wrote Girl at War, a profoundly moving novel about a Croatian girl who becomes a child soldier in the Yugoslavian civil war of the early 1990s. I reviewed it a few years back and I recall googling her to find out more about her. She was apparently writing this memoir at the time so I’m delighted to see your review. I’ve added it to my Wishlist.
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She also wrote the novel True Biz, which is amazing and I cannot recommend highly enough. It looks at the lives of deaf people and those around them (hearing family members, school admin, interpreters, etc.).
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Sounds like an interesting memoir with a lot of food for thought. Its interesting to hear that some historical information is included too. Definitely troubling to learn how her son could be affected due to governmental changes though.
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I’m not sure what it’s like now, but it felt like about twenty years ago, I knew of several white families adopting children from China. I wonder if it had to do with the One Child Policy or something. Novic’s son isn’t from China, but I did think about her comments on international adopting being a type of trauma because not only is a child removed from the birth parents but the culture into which they were born, too.
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I hadnt thought about that before but I imagine it must have had some kind of impact. Although I know in Call The Midwife they were helping overseas even before that policy came into place. Although I’m really not aware enough of all the ins and outs in comment on it. I do agree that it must be especially hard to be pulled away from your culture like that, especially when language barriers are involved. I’d hope the systems in place generally always only do so if its for the best. Although I imagine like anything there are some cases were corruption sadly plays a role.
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I don’t know tons about adoption, but I imagine if you look different from everyone around and it makes you feel “othered,” you would wonder what you would be like if you were in the place where you were born. On the other hand, Novic’s partner was adopted and never felt any of this stuff. His experience was great, so maybe it depends on how you fit in, your curiosity, age of adoption, etc. I had a friend in college who was half-Lebanese and looked Middle Eastern and never questioned anything about his adoption. His sister was from East Asia and it was the same thing. Their adoptive parents were white.
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I guess maybe its a bit of a case by case thing then given how different people are and how much their circumstances vary. If you’re adopted young enough not to have any kind of language barrier, or to remember much from before the adoption, I imagine its just a fact of life though as you wouldnt remember anything differently.
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I’ve also met people who HAS to know who their bio parents were regardless of how their life went with their adopted families. I don’t pretend to understand and just sympathize.
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I imagine it must be strange not knowing your biological family, whatever the circumstances. Although I imagine it can also be painful for the adopted families, especially if theres some rough history involved.
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I read and reviewed a memoir about a woman who was adopted as an infant, and her adoptive family was horrible. Why would they want a child and then just be mad at the child? It makes no sense to me except that parenthood sneaks up on everyone, mismatching their dreams with the reality of having a dependent, opinionated human in their care.
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Omg thats awful, I suppose you’re right and the reality was different than the dream version in their heads. Or else they adopted because having a child seems to be somewhat of an expectation or they were influenced by celebrities doing so. Whatever the case its awful though and terribly sad to think about.
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Yeah, I’m not sure. It makes no sense to me. I do know that in the US there are drop boxes for unwanted children. It’s implied that the boxes are for infants after a mother has just given birth, but people were dropping off teen children. Those states had to clarify these should be just-born babies, not older children. Couldn’t someone realize they are not a good adoptive parent and surrender their rights?
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I didn’t know that those are a thing. Its awful to think of children being dumped like that, but I suppose it’s better than them being abandoned somewhere random instead where they may not be found. I cant believe people tried to leave their teenagers there too. And yes you’d think they would but who knows what goes through people’s minds. Some things really make you despair at humanity.
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Interesting! I didn’t know that fact about Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language.
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Yes, I’d never heard that about Martha’s Vineyard, either.
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I shared a video to Edward, but here is another about Martha’s Vineyard sign language past and present: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltR21R0sl0o
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I really like this video that shows comparisons of different signs for English words. The signer on the left uses MVSL and the signer on the right uses ASL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZsZrtdIlA
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Wow, interesting! They’re so different. I think ASL is more expressive, but MVSL is probably easier to learn.
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I’m so curious how you came to that conclusion.
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I noticed that ASL requires more hand movements to say something than MVSL does. The person using MVSL seems relaxed, and some of the signs she used were simple enough that even I could learn them.
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This sounds great. I thoroughly enjoyed her novel True Biz.
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I’m so glad you read True Biz! Did you review it? I don’t remember.
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I had to look, but I did! It was June 21, 2022. Hopefully this will work if I try and paste the link (I’m on my phone).
https://bigreadinglife.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/swimming-in-water-and-in-books/
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I’m so glad you loved it! You described the three main characters well. I didn’t know if you remember writing about Charlie, why has the cochlear implant that hurts her, but it’s common for people to have their hardware upgraded and replaced several times, sometimes with a new processor (external) and sometimes with repeat surgeries. I recently learned that to get an MRI, the person has to have surgery first to remove the entire cochlear implant because it’s metal. They do the MRI and then have surgery again to replace the implant.
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Wow, that sounds dreadful!
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I had never heard of that fascinating history of Martha’s Vineyard! And this is likely my Canadianess showing through, but is Martha’s Vineyard sort of like the Hamptons? Where rich people go to summer, that sort of thing?
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My general impression is now when I hear “Martha’s Vineyard,” I think expensive/vacation, but it apparently used to be an island where the people didn’t really come or go, and so you got a lot of the same families marrying/having kids together, so genetic deafness passed down the line.
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This sounds really interesting! Did their adopted son know some version of Thai sign language or was it that he had no language at all?
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If I remember correctly, he only knew a couple of signs but not enough to express himself fully. Later, when he developed language skills, he could sign about things that had happened to him in Thailand.
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I read Girl at War a few years ago and found it interesting – I haven’t followed up with Novic’s writing, but maybe I should take a look at this too as it does sound like an interesting topic!
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This one would probably be helpful for getting a good deaf perspective, if that’s something that you want is just an individual or as a nurse. The novel True Biz is just amazing reading, period.
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Great post/review, Melanie. I listened to this one. I was particularly interested in what is “the least restrictive community”. Such an interesting discussion. It really does depend on what we mean by “restrictive” or “lease restrictive environment” doesn’t it? But I like the recognition that mainstreaming (as it is called here where children with diverse needs are place in regular schools) is not the answer for all. Sometimes parents without those needs insist on “mainstreaming” without really understanding what might be best for their child. It’s just not one size fits all, is it.
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Absolutely! Yes, you really got what Novic wrote about. The kids who used to be hidden in special needs classrooms, often in the basement or away from others, are now included, but for deaf children, that means more restrictions to communication access.
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