SILENCE IS MULTICOLORED IN MY WORLD
RAINBOW AWARDS 2012 BEST LGBT BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR WINNER
Hosted at Elisa: Reviews & Ramblings.
This was very special for me and utterly, utterly dedicated to the courageous young man who I didn’t alone love. We all miss him intensely for the intelligent, crazy, intense, passionate beauty he radiated into the world despite the terrible circumstances of his young life. This was a collection I had to share, as I couldn’t imagine for it to be lost without the chance for a wider world to know him. His loss is still agonizing, and as I wrote in my brief review, which was more of an epilogue for the work:
“After acute grief had passed, though it still can strike, it took me some time, months and into years to finally decide to collect his writings together to share with the world. He was so courageous and beautiful, strong and vulnerable at the same time. He was the kind of person you might never remark on if you see them walk pass you on the street, yet there was so many amazing things inside him, and a blazing intellectual that so many dismissed or never realized.
He lived most of his life in or near Berlin in Germany. Whether by train, bus or foot sometimes when I am wandering through the countryside or city, through the many parks or shopping arcades filled with people and I happen to see a tall, slim person with long reddish hair: I have a little pain inside me. It stops me in place because I think of him. If the person is moving away from me, sometimes I wish it were him somehow, still alive, still touchable in the physical sense. I want to imagine he is alive and loved by someone even if it is not myself, he, my special phantom of the city. It is hard to accept sometimes that so vibrant a soul is now gone from this world, but I believe I will see him again one day.”
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Description: “Silence is Multi-colored in My World is an imaginative collection of memories and observations written from the perspective of a young man who was orphaned early, who was gay, deaf and Russian. He was simple and complex, light-hearted and serious, whimsical and infinitely strong, and when he loved, he loved with all his heart and soul.
A former sex worker and later a husband, he was an amateur activist and philosopher, a startlingly intelligent, passionate individual able to intensely appreciate even the small wonders of the world and the people for whom he cared.
Part diary, part dialogue, part rhetoric, “Silence Is Multi-colored in My World” is based on actual experiences and is a literary portrait of a man with nothing to hide and everything to reveal. It is a slice into the willing veins of a mental and emotional free bleed.”
Previous editorial reviews on its page on GLBT Bookshelf: http://bookworld.editme.com/silence
“It made me laugh, broke my heart, and made me think of so many things. What a funny, bright, kind and loving young man! His pain makes me hurt, yet he had such an enormous capacity for love in spite of the cruelty and injustices he endured. I just want to hold him in my arms and not let go.” –Nancy Ferrer, Outlaw Reviews
“I read this book in a single sitting. It is an inspirational, often poignant, occasionally brutal, collection of essays about love, life, beauty, suffering, triumph, joy, pain and responsibility. I do not generally like collections of essays as a format preferring a straight line narrative. Had I read only the synopsis of this work without the author’s additional comments in requesting the review I would not have picked it up. Do not judge this book by its synopsis. Pick it up. Read it. Five stars.”- Bob Cherny, The LL Book Reviews
“As someone who has devoted their life to sound, and I suppose, at the same time silence, it is always very compelling for me to learn the perspective of someone who is deaf, and understands the vibration spectrum in a very different, but no less meaningful way….This book transcends all differences, stereotypes, judgements and becomes the sharing forth of a very honest human experience relevant to all of us, connected to all of us.“-Ana Cristina Caelen, Sound Therapist and Composer
“Silence Is Multi-Colored in My World is a beautiful and moving collection of essays, diary and blog entries written by a young deaf man. I read this collection with a sense of wonder, humility and inspiration and the writing deeply touched me on a multitude of levels. The honesty with which the writing conveys the joys and sorrows, fears and pains, hopes and dreams of this man serves as a testament and reminder of the capacity of the human spirit to not only persist but also to thrive and to soar.” –Indigene, Indie Reviews
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