True Biz: A Novel About Deafness

In American Sign Language (ASL) true biz means seriously, no kidding, or real talk. Sara Novic’s novel True Biz shows the somber side of deafness following three characters, Deaf and hearing, as the author shows their lives during a pivotal year at the River Valley School for the Deaf. Her choice of characters and hearing issues are typical to the Deaf community. 

Charlie was born deaf, but instead of learning ASL and giving their daughter a language, her mother pushes for a cochlear implant, that doesn’t work. Charlie’s dad eventually realizes their mistake and enrolls his daughter at River Valley as well as take night classes with his daughter in ASL. 

Charlie is typical of most deaf children born to hearing parents. Austin, on the other hand, is DEAF royalty coming from a family where deafness is generational. This changes when his baby sister is born hearing. [Note: This is devastating for a deaf couple because they want their child to be just like them.]

Finally, we meet February, a CODA child born to Deaf parents. February is the headmistress of  River Valley fighting desperately to keep her school opened as she encounters problems at home, death of her mom, and locating the whereabouts of three of her students. 

True Biz is a wonderful source to learn about Deaf culture and the reaction people have toward hearing loss. We also see how educators view teaching the deaf. One school of thought teaches that Deaf children shouldn’t learn ASL. It exposes deaf children only to English with an expectation they learn to lip read, get a cochlear implant, and be mainstreamed into the hearing population. The other side of the coin suggests a Deaf education where children learn ASL providing them with a language they can easily understand and be able to communicate in. That type of education is offered by River Valley School for the Deaf.

My only criticism of Novic’s novel is she doesn’t use quotation marks to inform readers that an English-speaking character is talking. She uses italics when a Deaf person signs, but English conversation is not noted making some sections of the book hard to follow forcing the reader to re-read for comprehension. 

With that said, I highly recommend True Biz to any student of Deaf culture and to anyone wanting to understand the trials of their deaf and hard-of-hearing friends and family. 

About the Author

Sara Novic has an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied fiction and literary translation. She teaches creative writing and Deaf studies at Emerson College and Stockton University, and lives in Philadelphia.

To learn more about Sara visit her website at: http://sara-novic.com.

Pop’s Rating:

Michael Thal is the author of The Lip Reader.