Retired linguistics professor Desmond Bates is slowly going deaf. It’s creating frustration and embarrassment – as well as some comedy moments along the way. Author Lodge is also a retired professor suffering the effects of hearing loss, but his thirteenth full-length novel, while it offers a poignant account of the condition, is a bit of a hotchpotch of disparate elements: literary references, musings on deafness, and trivia about famous deaf people, all buried within a loosely focused story.
There are some mildly entertaining comic episodes, such as when Desmond’s wife convinces him that they should join another couple on a trip to ‘Gladeworld’ (a luxury Center Parcs) and the ensuing shenanigans in hot tubs feels like a scene from a mediocre ’70s sitcom. Some much-needed pace and jeopardy is injected into the story in the form of blonde bombshell Alex. This seductive but disturbed graduate student is intent on ensnaring our bumbling house-husband, and just so happens to need a linguistics expert to supervise her research on suicide notes.
The most compelling element of ‘Deaf Sentence’ is the relationship between Desmond and his elderly father, whose own health is deteriorating rapidly. Harry is determined to stay in his grimy south London semi, and the prospect of being packed off to a care home fills him with fear. Desmond grapples with the dilemma of what to do for the best – for everyone – and the predicaments of father and son are equally moving.
With its groan-inducing title, ‘Deaf Sentence’ is a gentle Sunday-afternoon ramble of a novel, but its threads don’t really come together satisfactorily.
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