Deaf Sentence is, hands down, one of the best novels I have read this year. Period. It starts out chuckling-to-laugh-out-loud funny, but then turns serious and ultimately becomes very dark and sad. A lot like life itself, one might say. The protagonist, Desmond Bates, is a retired college linguistics professor in the north of England who has lost a wife to cancer, but then remarried quite happily to a woman several years younger. The title of the book comes from his increasing deafness, which began in his forties, but has become quite profound by the time of the story. Bates is sixty-five-ish (like me) and often quite frustrated with his progressive inability to decipher normal conversation, particularly in a crowded noisy environment. There are many comical scenes about how this can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassments. But the truth is, for the person who can't hear, it's not very funny at all. It's just ... well, frustrating as hell. Forced into an early retirement because of his disability, Bates is kind of unmoored and feels rather useless. He becomes accidentally involved with a dangerously nutty postgrad female student, an American. Not sexually involved, although that is a distinct possibility from the outset. This girls's dissertation topic is the textual analysis of suicide notes. See what I mean? Nuts! Suicide becomes an underlying theme here, however, as Bates realizes, to his surprise, just how unhappy his deafness and lack of purpose has made him. There are other elements in his life that take center stage too: the younger, attractive wife who is just becoming successful; an aging father (89) who lives alone in London and is becoming gradually unmoored and confused; grown children with their own lives. There are particularly moving moments in the latter half of the book that could make you cry. Exchanges between Bates and his rather distant grown son, Richard, who reveals how sad he was when his mother died and had wanted to be there, but was instead on a ski holiday with friends; and also between Bates and his father, who recalls his own first memories. In short, if you are of a certain age (in your sixties) and a part of that "sandwich" generation, then this book will decidedly hit home. The fact that the story was set in England was no impediment. This is, quite simply, a beautifully written and extremely human story. Lodge admits that, in the Acknowledgements - that certain elements of the story - the narrator's deafness and his dad - are autobiographical. I felt for him, in that regard, but make no mistake. David Lodge is, in this book, at the very top of his form as a writer. Highly recommended. ( )

A joy to read after some dubious experiences of late. Ending was a bit somber but on balance highly recommended. ( )

I'm just not too sure about this latest book by Lodge. I love his earlier novels, the campus novels, Thinks and Paradise news.
I dont think I liked Desmond the narrator at least until the end of the book nor really any of the other characters who all seem to different degrees-selfish.
He writes a journal of his deafness, his retirement, his family, the realtionship with his second wife, his father and problematic encounters with a post-grad student.
Only towards the end did I feel that Desmond came alive, and I was able to invest emotionally in this man, but then maybe that the point. If it is the problem is that as a reader I dont care enough at the start.
All in all a bit disapoiniting but Lodge is still a master of contemporary fiction. ( )

Loved this book. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It deals with issues that most of us are likely to face: disability due to aging, aging itself, what gives life meaning. Desmond's relationship with his elderly father, with his wife, and with an unstable university student are all believable, each presenting special rewards and challenges. Lodge's use of the English language is flawless. An extremely enjoyable read, especially for those who love the power of words and language. ( )

Remember how you felt when you read Where the Red Fern Grows, at ten, or Catcher in the Rye at fourteen, or perhaps The Handmaid’s Tale at thirty? Different books may have marked your watershed moments, but surely you will remember that feeling that a character in a book is real, that he or she would understand you perfectly, as you do him or her. Deaf Sentence offered me that experience once again.

In his mid-sixties, Desmond Bates has several problems: his tedious retirement after a satisfying career as a linguistics professor, his aging father who is slipping toward dementia, and a young woman determined to entangle Desmond in something unsavory, or worse, something insane. But his biggest problem is his deafness, his gradual descent into a world where spoken words -- the great fascinating of his life -- are no longer easily available to him. The subtle but ongoing confusion produced by his failure to understand what people are saying gradually absorbs his life and threatens to rob him of his identity. With humor, drama and empathy, Lodge is at the height of his considerable powers as he gives us a wonderfully clear window into coming-of-age at 60-something. Everyone should read this: the young so that they will understand and anticipate, and those facing their 60’s, so they will know they are not alone. ( )