****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“A Loss for Words” by Lou Ann Walker. Recorded Books. (Unabridged, 5 cassettes, 6 1/2 hours.) The hearing child of deaf parents, Walker found herself as a child having to take grown-up roles as shopper, negotiator and protector. She also found herself feeling as isolated and emotionally troubled as her parents sometimes were. She escaped (to Harvard and to work as a magazine editor and writer in New York). But she continued to work with and for the deaf. Her struggle to come to grips with her own life and theirs and her revelations about the sometimes cruel and often subtle costs of hearing loss make an instructive and finally very warming narrative, beautifully and calmly read by Barbara McCulloh. Information: (800) 638-1394. *** 1/2