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The Unheard Josh Swiller 9780805082104 Books

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The Unheard Josh Swiller 9780805082104 Books

What a beautiful book! I was so moved by the author's honesty, humor, insight... and grateful for the deeper understanding into what it means to be deaf. As someone who was raised in Africa, I'm grateful to Josh for the eloquence with which he articulates the strange mix of raw, often violent existence and what he calls Africa's grace; the same mix that opens your heart as it breaks it. This book brought to the surface again why I miss Africa so much and why I don't live there any more. I wish Josh had done consecutive stints as a Peace Corps volunteer in village after village so that we could have "The Unheard: A series." As an avid reader of all things African, the greatest compliment I can give Josh Swiller is to put him up alongside Alexandra Fuller. It's an accomplishment he deserves. Bravo!


Tags : The Unheard [Josh Swiller] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>A young man's quest to reconcile his deafness in an unforgiving world leads to a remarkable sojourn in a remote African village that pulsates with beauty and violence </b> These are hearing aids. They take the sounds of the world and amplify them. Josh Swiller recited this speech to himself on the day he arrived in Mununga,Josh Swiller,The Unheard,Holt Paperbacks,0805082107,Hearing & Speech,Americans - Zambia,Americans;Zambia;Biography.,Deaf,Peace Corps (U.S.),Swiller, Josh,Zambia - Description and travel,Zambia - Social conditions - 21st century,Zambia;Description and travel.,Zambia;Social conditions;21st century.,139201 Holt Griffin PB-Holt Griffin PB,Africa,Africa - General,Africa South,Americans,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Description and travel,GENERAL,General Adult,HEALTH & FITNESS Hearing & Speech,Non-Fiction,Personal Memoirs,Southern Africa,Swiller, Josh,Travel : Africa - General,TravelAfrica - General,United States,Zambia,Zambia - Description and travel,Zambia - Social conditions - 21st century,Zambia;Description and travel.,Zambia;Social conditions;21st century.,Africa - General,Africa South,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,HEALTH & FITNESS Hearing & Speech,Personal Memoirs,Travel : Africa - General,TravelAfrica - General,Biography Autobiography,Americans,Biography,Description and travel,Zambia,Biography And Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography

The Unheard Josh Swiller 9780805082104 Books Reviews

Others have given a powerful and complete synopsis of the content of the book. So I'm going to take another tact and strongly recommend it because of its honesty, hubris and humor in presenting the challenges of coping with deafness. With these qualities it shines Light and uses words to describe a powerful experience of cultural compatibility and dissonance from a place of hearing as well as the wisdom/reflection of inner silence. With the highest "magic" of the universe's synchroncity I purchased "the Unheard" the day after I visited a deaf patient and her mother as a chaplain volunteer in a large hospital. I needed to ressurect my basic, rusty sign language to communicate. The next day I heard Josh interviewed on NPR and guessed that his book would sensitize me to communication issues, the deaf community, coping mechanisms, the value of experiencing different cultures, and the search for meaning in life's largest, most encompassing questions. It's all "hear" in Josh's book. I'm starting my second reading. Josh, your are philospher and poet and I hope you know it!
A talented writer with an incredible story. This book will give you insight into an entirely new world, one most of us will never know. It will also make you laugh out loud, be grateful for where you live, and the friendships you have. A truly beautiful story and life well lived.
I met Josh very briefly about 8 months ago at Gallaudet. One of the friends I was with had arranged to meet him; I just said hello, exchanged pleasantries and left, following the rest of my group. When my friend caught up with the group, she was not too happy because I guess she was expecting Josh to recount his entire time in Africa so she wouldn't have to read the book. After that, I decided that I would read "The Unheard" on the off chance that I would meet Josh and we could have a conversation without the major stumbling block of not having read his book.

By the time I got around to reading it, my own hearing loss had recently been diagnosed. It wound up being the perfect timing. I was trying to figure out where I fit in and who I was.

The thing that really made this book helpful and successful for me was that it wasn't trying to be more than a memoir. He wrote about his experiences and what it meant in the context of his life. Memoirs can sometimes be so full of delusions of grandeur that they're just not worth reading. The writing was clear and concise without being short or choppy. This book wasn't trying to spell out ways to fix the way the Peace Corps works in Africa or provide a dissertation on the heirarchy within the African diaspora or be a self-help book suggesting you spend two years in the Peace Corps to learn about yourself and fix your problems. I probably wouldn't have made it through the entire book if it had tried any of those things.
I was also a member of that first group of PCV's to serve in Zambia and Josh and I were two of the eight who completed our commitments, although a couple of those who didn't complete their stint left for health reasons. I loved his book, and was unable to put it down once I started on it. I'm only mentioned in the book once, a bit out of character. Page 42 I'm the "middle-aged alcoholic from Michigan" (I object to the "middle-aged" part, as I was but a young lad of 39 at the time).

The story of Josh's departure from Munungu was never fully revealed to me until reading the book. Like all government-related organizations, Peace Corps is great at keeping secrets and rumors always abound. Josh and I were not close but we did bond a bit after he returned to Kabwe and was once again teaching the deaf students. It was only upon reading the book that I gained an appreciation for his intellect and the really horrible experiences he had in Munungu. At Peace Corps meetings or functions, he always seemed distracted, not interested, withdrawn. After reading the book, my eyes are opened to what the guy endured up there in Munungu and what being deaf is really all about.

I pre-ordered the book, with low expectations. Basically, I was concerned about what he may have said about me. What I did not expect was the clarity and smooth-flow of the narrative, the exceptional descriptors of characters ("voice like firecrackers" comes to mind), the entirely accurate desriptions of life in a bush village. A lot of what he wrote brought tears to my eyes, as I had experienced similar things in my own village of Lukwesa. Plus, I knew or had met a lot of the people he talks about in the book.

After reading it, I was ashamed at myself for not getting to know him better while in Zambia those two years, for underestimating his abilities, for not have taken more time while there to help him with his problems instead of selfishly concentrating on my own. The book opened my eyes to a lot of things that were happening right under my nose, but in my hearing ignorance I was blind (equally handicapped) to events as they occurred in regards to brother Josh. My apologies, Josh.

This is a great story written by a courageous young man who coped with a host of things (in Zambia as well as dealing with his own deafness) way better than those of us who are not so impaired. I vouch for its truthfulness and content and I know I will be reading it over and over again until the pages are frayed at the corners and the book will lie open voluntarily at whatever page number I'm on.

Greg Irish
Las Vegas, Nevada
Member of Peace Corps Zambia One
What a beautiful book! I was so moved by the author's honesty, humor, insight... and grateful for the deeper understanding into what it means to be deaf. As someone who was raised in Africa, I'm grateful to Josh for the eloquence with which he articulates the strange mix of raw, often violent existence and what he calls Africa's grace; the same mix that opens your heart as it breaks it. This book brought to the surface again why I miss Africa so much and why I don't live there any more. I wish Josh had done consecutive stints as a Peace Corps volunteer in village after village so that we could have "The Unheard A series." As an avid reader of all things African, the greatest compliment I can give Josh Swiller is to put him up alongside Alexandra Fuller. It's an accomplishment he deserves. Bravo!