Nyle DiMarco

Deaf Utopia is so much more than what I consider a typical celebrity memoir (which I really don't read). Nyle DiMarco was born in a multi-generational Deaf family -- one set of grandparents are both Deaf, his mother and father are both Deaf, and both of his brothers are Deaf along with other Deaf relatives. He shot to stardom when he won in one season of America's Top Model, and then won a season of Dancing With the Stars. Neither shows are the type I follow. But I did take the time to watch show more DTWS and vote for Nyle :-).

The Deaf world is small, and I have a friend whose Deaf daughter was a classmate of Nyle's at Gallaudet University where he was a math major. Nyle's memoir covers his experiences as a Deaf child, a Deaf young adult, and as a Deaf man who eventually figures out his sexuality. He also relates what kind of barriers his parents and grandparents faced in earlier days -- barriers that many of us Deaf people still experience to this day. When people ask me what it‘s like being Deaf, I try to say it‘s much more than just degrees of hearing loss (or "Deaf gain", a term that Nyle also shares in his memoir), but being Deaf is also being part of Deaf culture & dealing with audism by the non-deaf (such as language deprivation due to the emphasis of oral methods; he also touches on the damage done by Alexander Graham Bell and others of his time in attempts to take away sign language within Deaf education) .

Yet, Nyle is upbeat and positive throughout his memoir. When he discusses his sexuality path, he also covers how it it/was perceived within Deaf culture.

Another thing I really liked about this memoir is how he explains and translates ASL to text in the book. ASL is not a word-for-word signed substitute for spoken English (although there are some versions of sign language that attempts to follow English word order -- Nyle covers that as well). Nyle also reminds us that Deaf people are not a monolith. So readers unfamiliar with Deaf culture will learn that his story is his story alone, but that us Deaf people can have some, or a lot of things, in common.

Highly recommend. show less

I picked up this memoir on a recommendation from Overdrive. I'm easy for memoirs, so I didn't even bother to read the summary. I was like, "I am guessing from the title I will learn more about Deaf culture and it will be pretty upbeat, so why not?" Once again, I forgot that people usually get memoir contracts because they're already at least a little bit famous, and I should probably google what they do before checking out their book from the library.

So I super enjoyed the first part of this show more book, which does indeed provide great insight into Deaf culture and DiMarco's experience of growing up Deaf (and dealing with his sexuality through a Deaf culture lens), and then, about halfway through, there was a sudden, surprising-only-to-me pivot to reality show stuff. I'll be honest: that part was not as interesting to me. (I did find DiMarco's description of how you learn to dance in front of millions of people when you can't hear the music fascinating, though.) But the first half was great, more than enough for me to rate it four stars. show less

*Free e-book ARC made available by the publisher through Edelweiss Plus - thank you!*

Deaf activist and reality TV star Nyle DiMarco writes his memoir, describing growing up Deaf as the son of Deaf parents and learning & loving ASL, going to Deaf school, and eventually starring on both America's Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars.

I'm probably one of the few readers who picked this up with absolutely no idea who Nyle DiMarco was but wanting to read a book that talked about Deaf culture. show more As a result, I'm not really the intended reader for this book, where DiMarco takes pains to describe the history of Deaf culture and education, and how it impacted his life. That part was somewhat repetitive to me. But, I enjoyed reading about his life, growing up with his twin Nico and older brother Neal, the wonderful relationship he had with his mom and extended family, and eventually his experiences on ANTM and DWTS, and his realization that he wasn't, in his words "100 percent straight". A few years younger than me, DiMarco is impassioned in his advocacy and has used his platform as an actor, model and producer to highlight the Deaf experience. If you're curious about Deaf culture and don't have any background in it, this is a good starting point. show less

Excellent, really a top grade memoir. If you read this, be sure to read the introduction. TBH, I didn't know who this was as I just don't watch reality TV. I don't recall how I heard about this but I'm glad I did. DiMarco is certainly not lacking in confidence, even when he is (that will make sense when you read it). He impresses me as one of those people who has the personality of a blast furnace.

The book is a series of vignettes from early childhood through now including family, show more schooling, travel, and the America's Next Top Model and Dancing With the Stars competitions. It's hard to explain the book since so much of it is so emotional and probably eye opening to many.

Very very much worth the read. show less