Deaf Utopia
By: Nyle DiMarco
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 317
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A heartfelt and inspiring memoir and Deaf culture anthem by Nyle DiMarco, actor, producer, two-time reality show winner, and cultural icon of the international Deaf community.
Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.
In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.
A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.
Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.
Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.
First Impressions
I don’t remember how I heard about this novel but as soon as I did I wanted to read it. I am a speech pathologist and so I’m very interested in Deaf culture from that perspective. It was pretty much all I needed to know.
What I thought
This book was fabulous.
Nyle DiMarco is a winner of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars. I have watched both of these shows, but not the seasons that he was in. This memoir is the story of his childhood, experience as a member of the Deaf community, and his experiences with reality TV.
Nyle does such an amazing job explaining the Deaf culture. He splices in history about the culture, Gallaudet, and the Milan Conference. I learned so much about the Deaf school systems as well as some perspective of speech therapy from someone who is profoundly deaf and in a deaf family. I think that his perspective and experience alone makes this book worth a read. He comes from a family of deaf individuals, so just that alone is fascinating to learn about.
In addition to his Deaf experiences, Nyle talks about his struggles and growth with his sexuality. At the end of this book, he identifies as Queer, but at different points in the book he identifies as straight and as sexually fluid. His perspective about his changing sexuality was explained so well and really interesting to me. I am straight and always have been. I’ve never doubted my sexuality. But hearing someone explain how they could grow up thinking they were straight but then realizing there had bene an underlying attraction to the same sex all along was eye opening.
If you are reading this book because you’re a fan of his reality TV show appearances, you won’t be disappointed. He walks the reader through his experiences so thoroughly. I often feel like when I’m reading a memoir that they don’t go into enough depth or detail about a movie or a TV show of theirs that I loved. Nyle walks you through his season of ANTM as though you’re watching the show. It was so well don’t and so interesting.
The other part of this book that I loved was the way that both English and American Sign Language were incorporated. Because ASL is Nyle’s first and dominant language, it is hard to translate it to the page but they do a great job. The grammar of ASL is different from English and I think it’s important to show the conversation told in that language structure to maintain the truth and authenticity of Nyle’s experiences and his own language.
I adored this book. I was sucked in from the first page and I think there is something in it for everyone. Not only is it eye opening for the Deaf culture, but for the LGBTQ culture as well. In addition to that, Nyle’s experiences on reality shows will suck you in from the entertainment culture side. This is definitely up there for one of my favorite reads of the year.