I received Marlee’s book ‘I’ll Scream Later’ for Christmas last year, and I’ve only just finished reading it! I figured it would be a great idea to write a book review so I can share it with you all! Here goes!

Book: ‘I’ll Scream Later’

Author: Marlee Matlin

Type: Autobiography

Rating: 4/5

Marlee Matlin is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actress, who is deaf. This book highlights her rollercoaster life story, with the struggles of overcoming her sudden hearing loss at 18 months old to receiving an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in ‘Children of a Lesser God’.

I particularly liked the book because it’s the first one I’ve read about a deaf person. I can see many similarities with her early life experiences and I can relate to her views on life being deaf. A key quote would be:

“I am proud to be a Deaf person and wouldn’t know life any other way… I never wanted my deafness to define me as a person… I am many, many things, and only one of them is Deaf”

Everything that Marlee did, from her TV and film appearances to performing on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, she always made sure that there was a way round any communication barriers. She had her interpreter with her most of the time, and she fought for ‘Deaf Talent’ which is deaf actors playing deaf roles, rather than hearing actors.

She is a keen deaf activist, she quotes:

“I’ve tried to be a strong advocate for Deaf issues- working endlessly for closed-captioning and educational opportunities for Deaf children” – Is it me or does it sound familiar?

The book itself is quite touching because she had to juggle her job, as well as ‘battling her addiction’ and dealing with issues of inferred domestic abuse.

Unfortunately most of the book seemed to me to be covering mundane day to day experiences. I was expecting a lot more about the deaf culture and her work with closed captioning and education.

I would recommend this book to people my age and above, purely because a lot of it is about her adult life, going into relationships and motherhood, most of which isn’t entirely relatable to me, but perhaps would be with myself in ten years’ time.

I’d like to end with another one of her amazing quotes:

“Deafness cuts you off from people only if you let it. If this were not true, we wouldn’t have successful Deaf doctors, lawyers, educators… It may be true that life is challenging when you are unable to hear, but believe me when I say the real ‘handicap’ of deafness does not lie in the ear, it lies in the mind”

Love E x