|
SYNOPSIS
The Deaf-Mute Boy—equal parts travel story, love story,
and a resonant confrontation with the Muslim world—is the tale of
a gay American professor immersed in a North African society. Maurice Burke, an archaeologist,
is invited to speak at a conference in the bustling port town of Sousse, Tunisia. At first
disillusioned by its rampant tourism and squalid commercialism, Maurice becomes intrigued
by his surroundings after meeting a local deaf-mute boy. While exploring a vibrant souk,
Maurice encounters a religious leader who guides him on a fateful introduction to the boy's
family. As Maurice's involvement with the deaf-mute boy intensifies, he finds himself drawn
into a maze of Tunisian politics, culture, and religion.
ADVANCED COMMENTS
"I was powerfully moved and haunted by The Deaf-Mute Boy. Joseph Geraci's deft
and emotionally nuanced seduction of the reader—even as our protagonist is enchanted by
Tunisia—struck me as truly remarkable."
– Tim Miller, author of 1001 Beds
"Once Tunisia was the land of Gide and de Montherlant—eroticized,
romantic, 'oriental'–but that was then and this is now. Overrun by tourists and
fundamentalists—post-colonial, melancholic and inexplicable, threatened and threatening—it
is still seductive. The Deaf-Mute Boy is a devastatingly accurate portrayal of the reality
behind the modern tourism facade."
– Peter Lamborn Wilson
REVIEWS
Library Journal (September 2006):
Geraci's provocative travel story involves a contemporary gay man's visit to postcolonial northern
Africa. Archaeologist Maurice Burke attends a scholarly conference in the coastal town of Sousse,
Tunisia. His singular encounter with Nidhal, a local deaf-mute boy, not only alters his outlook on
Sousse-which he had considered a commercial tourist trap-but also serves as the catalyst for Burke's
fateful plunge into a Tunisian political scene dominated by powerful religious, cultural, and economic
forces. "I'm afraid you have Arab fever," counsels Burke's friend Henri Meursault, a famous
French writer. When Meursault suggests that Burke is repeating the sexual explorations of André
Gide, he also questions whether it isn't the youthful Nidhal who has seduced Burke rather than Tunisia.
Fortunately, Geraci's novel doesn't devolve into an account of a pederastic tryst. Instead, this book
succeeds because Geraci adeptly shapes Burke's lingering in Sousse into a thoughtful excavation, slowly
unearthing the archaeologist's emotions about Eddie, his AIDS-stricken partner in New York, and his
personal and professional inadequacies. Recommended.
– Faye A. Chadwell, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene OR.
Amazon.com (February 2007):
My friend, Benson Gardner, at the University of Wisconsin Press recommended this book to me and I am
so glad he did. Having lived in the Middle East for so many years, I have always been interested in
the different aspects of gay life there and now with the Arab influence in our modern world, we should
all be concerned with what goes on in that area. The Deaf-Mute Boy is set in North Africa and even
though that is not technically the Middle East, North Africa subscribes to the Muslim culture that
is located in Asia Minor. The laws and the customs might as well be in the Middle East as they are
basically the same....
This is a powerfully moving book that has to be read in order to gain a better grasp on the ideas
and philosophies that shape Muslim life. I was haunted by the book. Joseph Geraci has the gift of
being able to draw the reader in and make him a part of the story. Here we are given the reality of
the Arab world as we watch our professor descend the steps to understand a culture so unlike his own.
Writing in crystal clear prose with beautiful descriptions, here is a look at a world so few of us
have a chance to experience. There's much to be learned here and much to be shared. All in all,
reading The Deaf-Mute Boy was an exciting experience, one I do not have very often.
– Amos Lassen: Founder and Chairman of Literary Pride and of Cinema Pride.
Amazon.com (March 31, 2007):
A review cannot begin to capture the vast array of substantive
layers of this novel; but this review's object is an attempt to convey that the deceptively
simple story of The Deaf-Mute Boy masks fundamental struggles of human nature as profound
as any in, say, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, or Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Joseph
Geraci has created a work of sheer brilliance; stark, tortured, and expertly crafted. It is
therefore hoped that his outstanding novel will receive the recognition that it clearly
deserves as an enduring and extraordinarily powerful work of literature.
– D. Elliot.
|
