Words for a Deaf Daughter and Gala: A Fictional Sequel

by Paul West

Overview

This volume brings together two of Paul West's best books: his critically acclaimed "Words for a Deaf Daughter" (1970), a nonfiction account of West's deaf and brain-damaged daughter Mandy at age eight, and "Gala" (1976), a novel about a writer named Wight Deulius who brings his handicapped teenage daughter Michaela from England to America for a visit. While Words is an account of Mandy's diagnosis and treatment, Gala is "the scenario of a wish-fulfillment" (as West writes in the preface), a continuation of the father and daughter's joyful investigation of the richness of life and its amazing possibilities. Ranging across natural history and astronomy in his effort to understand his daughter's handicap, West finds in Mandy/Michaela an irrepressible and unpredictable guide to the mysteries of the universe. Brought together in the same volume, the books also allow a unique look at how nonfiction and fiction techniques can be used to the same ends in the hands of a master of prose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564780362
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	11/01/1993
Series:	American Literature
Edition description:	First Dalkey Archive Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.49(h) x 0.96(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

A naturally gifted spiritual medium and healer, Paul has been listening to, writing and speaking the Voice For God (Holy Spirit) and Jesus for many years. He is a seasoned channeler and author and continues to apply the forgiveness principles of A Course in Miracles to his own life. You are encouraged to have an open mind and heart as you listen to the words which have come through him, as an offering of clarity and peace. Surrender to your divine guidance and allow yourself to be lifted up into illumination. We are all awakening together. After receiving the book, please consider returning to write a short review/rating - your feedback is very powerful in helping more people to develop trust, and is very much appreciated. Thank you. Visit us online at www.voiceforgod.net

Editorial Reviews

"... a rare celebration of the human spirit that will move thousands of readers." --Publishers Weekly

Dalkey Archive Press

"West shines best when he dares to invade those close to home and heart. Gala, a novel in which he attempts to jimmy the lock on his deaf daughter Mandy's closed world, tells of their joint attempt to build a basement model of the Milky Way. From this domestic conceit West launches headlong into the more rarefied precincts of brain biochemistry, astrophysics, and linguistics, yet the sum is anything but dry meditation; his prose burns with the incandescent passion only a parent could muster." --Albert Mobilio, Voice Literary Supplement

Dalkey Archive Press

"[Gala is] wildly eloquent. Paul West... has style as full of exotic ingredients as God's bouillabaisse and, in its references to nature, as comprehensive as Noah's inventory.... He has thrown a mental party for his readersa gala, a festivity that links two human beings to the constellations." --Edmund White, New York Times Book Review

Dalkey Archive Press

From the Publisher

This West reprint contains the odd combination of a 1970 nonfiction account of the novelist's relationship with his deaf daughter and a fictional treatment of a more intricate but similar story West released six years later ( LJ 2/1/77), which has a writer and a deaf girl as the principal characters. LJ 's reviewer highly praised Words , saying, ``The courage, wisdom, and bittersweet joy conveyed should provide more help to those whose lives revolve around a disabled person than a stack of psychology books'' ( LJ 7/70). A worthy volume for its fact and fiction.

Library Journal

There are descriptive passages in this book that burn themselves into the mind...Stunning writing...The song of life in the midst of calamity. -- The New York Times Book Review

Chaim Potok