Going Blind: A MemoirFinalist for the 2010 Minnesota Book Award presented by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library Mara Faulkner grew up in a family shaped by Irish ancestry, a close-to-the-bone existence in rural North Dakota, and the secret of her father's blindness—along with the silence and shame surrounding it. Dennis Faulkner had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that gradually blinded him and one that may blind many members of his family, including the author. Moving and insightful, Going Blind explores blindness in its many permutations—within the context of the author's family, more broadly, as a disability marked by misconceptions, and as a widely used cultural metaphor. Mara Faulkner delicately weaves her family's story into an analysis of the roots and ramifications of the various metaphorical meanings of blindness, touching on the Catholic Church of the 1940s and 1950s, Japanese internment, the Germans from Russia who dominated her hometown, and the experiences of Native people in North Dakota. Neither sentimental nor dispassionate, the author asks whether it's possible to find gifts when sight is lost. |
Contents
1 Blind Spot | 1 |
2 Blinders | 15 |
3 Blind | 39 |
4 Turn a Blind Eye | 65 |
5 Blind Faith | 99 |
6 Blind Prejudice | 119 |
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Common terms and phrases
asked baby beautiful became become believe blind called Catholic Church climbing close create dad’s darkness death Dennis describes didn’t died disabilities English experience eyes face fact faith Famine father feel find first German hands happened hard heart hold hope human hundred Hunger imagination Indians Ireland Irish John kids kind knew land learned letters light lived look lost Mandan memory million mind mother never night North Dakota parents person potatoes prejudice questions remember River Russia says sense sight sisters sometimes songs story talk teach tell thousands told town tribes trying turned understand United University vision visual whole women wondered writes wrote York young