By Ande Jacobson
Teri Kanefield is many things. She’s a lawyer who spent the bulk of her time in practice as an appellate defense attorney. She’s a teacher having taught college level English and creative writing. She’s an award winning author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her educational credentials are impeccable including both her law degree and a master’s in English with an emphasis in fiction writing, something that no doubt came in handy in weaving compelling (but true) narratives in her legal briefs. Now retired from her law practice, she volunteers her time to support our democracy. She uses her writing to reach across boundaries and continue to educate and entertain. Ever the teacher, she provides political and legal analysis for major news organizations and on her own through her blog and social media to help untangle the complex landscape that we now inhabit. Her books continue to be something special. Even in her fiction, she includes salient details that come from her broad base of experience in numerous ways. Turn On the Light So I Can Hear is a novel that reads very personally. It’s not necessarily autobiographical, but the issues and social commentary are familiar to her.
The protagonist, Bretna Barringer, is an artist who is hard of hearing and tends to relate to the world in artistic terms viewing people and situations in terms of their color and texture. Kanefield can relate to her protagonist because both she and her husband are hard of hearing. On her website, Kanefield mentions how this situation can lead to some amusing exchanges when one or the other of them mishears part of their conversation.
Bretna, desperately needing a job, responds to an ad for a sign-language interpreter and tutor for Alex, a deaf student being mainstreamed in high school. While Bretna has some hearing loss, she’s not at all proficient in American Sign Language (ASL) yet fakes her way through the interview to get the job. She seeks out a class to hone her skills thinking that she should easily be able to master ASL over the summer. Her teacher is Curtis, an architect, an idealist, and a crusader working for the Deaf Association. After the distressing revelation that the class alone would not prepare her for the job she undertook in such a short time, she enlists Curtis’ help as a private tutor to help her learn ASL more quickly. They enjoy being with one another, and despite Curtis’ previous rule of never dating a hearing woman, they begin a tenuous relationship outside of class.
Bretna learns enough to help Alex, although their initial meeting is less than encouraging. He’s a difficult teenager, and she works hard to gain his trust. As an added hurdle, Alex’s parents, particularly his mother Lucinda, are more than a little controlling and unrealistic. In spite of the challenges thrown at her from both the school and from Lucinda, Bretna and Alex eventually forge a productive working relationship, and she becomes a strong advocate for him. Curtis initially is not in favor of either Alex being mainstreamed or his being tutored by a hearing person. As Bretna and Curtis’ relationship blossoms and he sees her determination and dedication, he slowly changes his mind. He admires her and develops a deep affection for her although their relationship is not without significant challenges. It also turns out that Bretna has far more hearing loss than even she was aware, and through the story, that explains many of the difficulties she has in all of her friendships and family relationships.
Kanefield brings to light the many sources of friction between the hearing and deaf communities, and the special challenges for those caught between those two worlds. The hearing world is rather exclusive in many ways making it extremely difficult for the deaf to fully function without assistance. Beyond the obvious dangers of traffic and audible warnings that go unnoticed, there is a degree of intentional exclusion at play. It’s not limited to hearing vs. deaf though. While there are certainly exceptions, the “normal” world is too often disdainful of all of those who are outside the norm in some way, and this comes across in the story.
Kanefield deftly shows how Bretna, Alex, and Curtis are challenged by their families, their friends, and their need to belong. While ASL is at the center of the story, communication and connection can take many forms, and art can help cross boundaries in unexpected ways.
The book ends on a high note with a bright outlook all around, and Bretna, Curtis, and Alex show significant growth. Overall, it’s a gentle story that tries to educate as well as entertain much as Kanefield does in her blog and social media posts. It’s likely this also happened in her legal briefs. After all, as a trained fiction writer, she has the tools to weave a compelling narrative no matter the subject matter.
It’s not clear if this is from Kanefield’s personal experience or if it’s simply a compelling plot device, but at one point in the story Bretna relates a childhood story about being amazed at how a friend of hers could know what’s happening in another room out of her sight simply by hearing it. To Bretna, this was magical since it was something she could only imagine. Taking that further, anybody witnessing somebody using a sense they either don’t have or have greatly reduced functionality would have the same effect, particularly if they were young and unaware of the range of sensory aptitudes around them.
For somebody who relies heavily on lip reading due to reduced or absent hearing, turning on a light is directly related to their being able to hear by seeing what somebody is saying.
References:
Turn On the Light So I can Hear, written by Teri Kanefield
https://terikanefield.com/
https://terikanefield.com/turn-on-the-light-so-i-can-hear/
A Good Reed Review 