Perspective

As a sometimes intensely personal autobiography, A Loss for Words certainly depends upon the first-hand perspective of author Lou Ann Walker. Her ability to speak about deafness, both as a culture and in regards to the effect it has on hearing children, cannot really be questioned for several reasons. She grew up in a household with two deaf parents, and was exposed to deaf culture and sign language not only in the home but within the Indiana deaf community her parents were very active in. In college, Walker initially studied to be a deaf teacher, and as a magazine editor, she spent several months embedded with a deaf street gang. She also spent many hours as an interpreter for the deaf in various social situations, from therapy sessions to court hearings to hospital settings, and as such she became exposed to a large segment of the deaf population...