You Look So Normal brims with raw emotion, honesty, personality, hope, and the challenges of being different, misunderstood, lonely, and isolated. This remarkable memoir is not just for those now handling hearing loss but also for their friends, family, and people around them. It’s a source of hope and an invitation to be more empathetic with those affected by hearing loss.
In this beautifully written memoir Claudia really hits on the topic of isolation, very common among those with hearing loss. Her vivid descriptions of her colorful journey through complex family interactions, friends and different professions are truly inspiring as she finally creates a happy and fulfilling life. Her strength and resilience shine throughout.
A clear-eyed look at the pervasive influence of hearing loss on almost every aspect of life. In her memoir, Claudia Marseille’s creative zest for life triumphs over what some might consider a disability, and she candidly sets her struggles alongside the story of her relationship with European parents still living under the shadow of the Holocaust. A wonderful, poignant read!
Marseille’s memoir is a beautifully told, nostalgic portrayal of a 1950’s childhood with a severe hearing loss. Born at a time when hearing aids were crude amplifiers, Claudia had to deal with loneliness at school, social gatherings and professional demands. She finally learned to tell others about her hearing loss, and find meaning in a loving marriage and a successful career as a painter. Hers is an evocative story of resilience and her challenges will resonate with anyone who has experienced hearing loss.
In her eloquent story Claudia Marseille awakens readers to the barriers and biases most of us fail to recognize or fully understand. Through her singular courage, tenacity, and self-discovery she gracefully illuminates the ways difference and determination can transform us all.
Marseille creates a vivid picture of what it meant to grow up with hearing loss the complexities, the sadness, the frustrations, and how she was able to successfully navigate to a place of self-acceptance. Marseille is special and so is her story. She traversed a world that wasn’t built for her and in her journey she finds her true authentic self. This is a story you will want to hear for yourself.
Marseille’s memoir was the most authentic depiction I have ever read on this topic. It was so surprising to read about the similarities of our life experiences of hearing loss. Thank you for so beautifully articulating your experience and sharing it with the world.
Marseille’s skilled down to earth, deeply moving and bravely intimate story telling is a captivating look at the profound lifelong impacts of growing up and finding one’s way as an adult with a severe hearing loss in a hearing world. Yet, while hearing loss is central to her story, it is also about the many experiences that has created the tapestry of a life rich with complex relationships, passionate artistic talent and profound personal growth.
Claudia Marseille illuminates the experience of living with severe hearing loss in her extraordinary and powerful memoir. With tremendous sensitivity and insight she eloquently brings the reader into her world of growing up with a serious and invisible disability. My understanding of what it means to live with hearing loss was blown wide open. This needs to be required reading for those in education, healthcare and, simply put, everyone.
In her compelling story, Claudia paints in fine details the story of her life challenged by a severe hearing loss while also managing to live an adventurous and fulfilling life rich with her many talents in music, art and creativity.
Marseille deftly weaves the realities of the ever-present communication challenges, and the deep sense of isolation she so wanted to overcome. We learn just how impactful communication barriers can be. Most importantly, Marseille faced down these challenges and realized her desire to have a fulfilling life and engage as the socially outgoing woman she is.
But You Look So Normal is a beautifully written, utterly honest memoir about the experience of growing up with a silent disability. It is a testament to resilience and the power of honesty, forgiveness, and self-discovery through human relationships and art. It is a must read for clinicians and anyone afflicted by or interested in the experience of difference.
Claudia boldly shares with us a heartwarming story unveiling the challenges of a significant and isolating disability, and heartbreaking insights into complicated relationships. Her persistence to overcome these obstacles and “fit in” help us grow to deeply appreciate her numerous natural talents, bravery, and beauty.
A well-written and indispensable book about the author’s journey from silence to sound and the challenges and isolation it entailed. A must read for able-bodied people to learn about the trials of an invisible disability. This is a heroine’s journey – learning to speak, navigating hearing loss, and cultivating other senses for artistic expression – a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.
Claudia Marseille’s beautifully rendered memoir doesn’t stop at offering insights into the hearing disabled world. This well-crafted tender tale begs us to consider the grave challenges faced by the disadvantaged, and how it is that such individuals defy great adversity and champion debilitating handicaps to achieve remarkable personal goals. Marseille’s narrative is informative, stirring, and noteworthy.
Claudia Marseille’s memoir paints an evocative picture of her loneliness and perseverance through hiding her hearing loss during her early life. This is a must-read for new parents, grandparents, pediatricians, and anyone who works with children and young people to prevent such isolation and loneliness.
This well-crafted, intimately personal, and honest exploration of the author’s truth is a revelatory experience for any reader, whether they are hard of hearing themselves, Deaf, or hearing. In this memoir, Claudia Marseille brings us with her on the lifelong journey of finding her place in the world of silence and sound.
Claudia’s life would be dramatic even if she hadn’t been born nearly deaf, but she was, and how she maneuvered with and around her “disability” makes her account of her life all the more poignantly compelling.
A breath-taking tour de force! Claudia Marseille’s heart-breaking memoir is a game changer opening new vistas on the world of the hard of hearing. Marseille’s sincere narrative seamlessly navigates the gaps between her needs and her reality as she worked hard to create an admirable path forward to the life of her dreams and aspirations. I’m sure I won’t be alone in being grateful that Marseille has shared this wonderful story!
Claudia Marseille’s memories are reported with vivid color and sight descriptions and muffled sound. This is a tale of medically induced hearing loss, lifelong learning, survival, love, music, and finally art.
A poignant memoir, rich with vivid details about the full impact of severe hearing loss on every aspect of daily life, and ultimately a story of resilience and triumph over adversity.