Mean Little deaf Queer, Terry Galloway
Mean Little deaf Queer, Terry Galloway
List: $28.00 | Sale: $19.04
Club: $14.00

Mean Little deaf Queer
A Memoir

Author: Terry Galloway

Narrator: Terry Galloway

Unabridged: 9 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/13/2025

Synopsis

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf. As a self-proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury with her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children. Ever since that first real-life performance, Galloway has used theater, whether onstage or off, to defy and transcend her reality. With disarming candor, she writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity, and living in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters. What could have been a bitter litany of complaint is instead an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting take on life.

About The Author

Known for her cross-dressing roles in Shakespeare and at Austin’s legendary Esther’s Follies, Terry Galloway has toured internationally as a solo artist and with P.S. 122’s Field Trips. As a giant rodent, she heads up Mickee Faust, a community theater for Tallahassee’s weird, queer, disability community. When not touring, she lives in Tallahassee with her wife, two cats, and a bevy of friends and family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Terry on August 01, 2010

I can't help it. Despite its many flaws I really love my own book. So does my Mother.......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on June 04, 2013

This was an interesting read for me, partly because I have a very limited understanding of the experiences of little-d deaf individuals— especially as they differ from those who identify as big-D Deaf. Having spent years in college learning the basics of American Sign Language and immersing myself in......more

Goodreads review by Hannah Young on August 28, 2017

Probably the most phenomenally engaging memoir I've yet read.......more

Goodreads review by Jim on March 06, 2010

Unlike most tradition memoirs I've read, MLDQ avoids strict narrative in favor of a series of performances pieces (not unusual given Galloway's skills), each detailing specific events while carrying the theme of self discovery. Galloway's life-long struggle with deafness, sexuality preference, a mor......more

Goodreads review by George on July 01, 2023

Somehow disappointing. The title is certainly catchy, yet I spent way too much time fantasizing about what the title should have been (I came up with the too long "If This Wasn't A Game You'd Be Dead By Now"). Whenever I've distracted like this is a sign that, a) the book is mis-titled, and b) not v......more

Quotes

This is a damn fine piece of work which is unbelievably powerful.—Dorothy Allison

"This is not your mother's triumph-of-the-human-spirit memoir. Yes, Terry Galloway is resilient. But she's also caustic, depraved, utterly disinhibited, and somehow sweetly bubbly, a beguiling raconteuse who periodically leaps onto the dinner table and stabs you with her fork. Her story will fascinate, it will hurt, and you will like it."—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

"The most uncomfortable laughter of the season."—Out

"One of the finest, most nakedly honest and humorous autobiographies out there to be read. . . . Partly David Sedaris-esque in its slice-of-life essay moments, part slapstick farce, so very real, and always laugh out loud hilarious."—Rebecca Sarwate, Edge

"[A] humorous and harrowing new memoir."—The Advocate

"Told with understandable rage, quirky humor, and extraordinary humanity, this remarkable woman's engaging account deserves a large readership."—Booklist

"A frank, bitingly humorous memoir."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Galloway] is dexterous in her use of words and devastating with a sense of black humor that brings numerous laugh-out-loud delights."—John R. Killacky, The Gay and Lesbian Review

"Galloway was born a storyteller, and her narrative gifts are in full force throughout, spinning yarns about herself and her family that mesmerize."—Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

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