Dead Languages
David Shields
246 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 1555972748
ISBN13:
Language: English
Publish: May 1, 1998
Washington State Book Award, 1990
Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards, 1990
From the moment his mother tries unsuccessfully to coax him into saying “Philadelphia,” Jeremy Zorn’s life is framed by his unwieldy attempts at articulation. Through family rituals with his word-obsessed parents and sister, failed first love, an ill-fated run for class president, as the only Jewish boy on an otherwise all-black basketball team, all of the passages of Jeremy’s life are marked in some way by his stutter and his wildly off-the-mark attempts at a cure. It is only when he enters college and learns his strong-willed mother is dying that he realizes all languages, when used as hiding places for the heart, are dead ones.