News/Reviews
Join us for a conversation with artist and author Claudia Marseille
in celebration of her brilliant award-winning memoir, But You Look So Normal
reception to follow
About the book:
By age four, Claudia Marseille had hardly uttered a word. When her parents finally learned she had a severe hearing loss, they chose to mainstream her, hoping this would offer her the most “normal” childhood possible. With the help of a primitive hearing aid, and ten years of speech therapy, Claudia worked hard to learn to hear, lipread, and speak even as she tried to hide her disability in order to fit in. As a result, she went through periodic episodes of loneliness—fitting into neither the hearing world nor Deaf culture.
In But You Look So Normal, Claudia delves into not only her disability but also her relationships with her German refugee parents—a disturbed, psychoanalyst father and a Jewish, Holocaust survivor mother. She shares how she emerged from loneliness and social isolation, explored her Jewish identity, and eventually opened herself to a life of creativity and love.
An inspiring memoir of a life affected but not defined by an inviable disability, Claudia’s story is a journey through family, loss, shame, love, and healing as she finally, joyfully, finds her place in the world.
Winner of the 2024 IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards) Gold Medal for Best First Book in Non-Fiction, Marseille’s writing is much like her painting – layered, intelligent, authentic and unflinchingly honest.
Books will be available at the reading for $20 (includes tax). Please bring cash if possible.