1. A book written in North America: Deaf Utopia: A Memoir- and a Love Letter by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert

List Progress: 14/30

A lot of reality stars write memoirs after or in the midst of their fame, and it turns out that they don’t really have much to say. There may be gossip and stories from behind the scenes of the works that made them famous, but that’s about all that they bring to the table. Nyle DiMarco, however, came prepared with a lot to say and a real passion for saying it to as many people as will listen. The winner of Seasons 22 of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars in the same year, DiMarco garnered a lot of attention as a proudly Deaf man. He is the fourth generation of his family to be born Deaf, American Sign Language is his primary language, and he has been immersed in the Deaf community his entire life: a community he now has a global platform to highlight in Deaf Utopia: A Memoir- and a Love Letter.

The first half of the book spends a great deal of time and detail on DiMarco’s childhood and family, and for good reason. His life with his mother, grandparents, aunt, uncles and two brothers is very normal, but there are aspects of how they navigate life that may be very foreign to hearing readers. His parents illustrate parallel examples of how access to language is vital to children; his mother, raised by her own Deaf parents, had access to ASL her entire life and developed into a strong, passionate Deaf woman who never backed down from a fight. His father, on the other hand, was born to hearing parents who tried to force him down the path of oral education, which he never took to, and never bothered to learn how to really communicate with their own child. DiMarco draws a direct line between his father’s linguistic neglect and his emotional and intellectual stunting, and how it bred a great deal of frustration and self-loathing that later fueled serious substance abuse. DiMarco himself does not verbally speak, and a recurring theme in the memoir is hearing people asking or expecting him to do so in order to get anywhere or engage with society at all. But spoken language is not the be-all and end-all, and DiMarco pushes back against that narrative at every turn.

The second half of the book delves into his reality television runs, both the general Hollywood stories and the additional hurdles that were put before him as a Deaf man. Despite his overwhelming success and popularity, producers don’t seem interested in setting him up with projects in the aftermath of the shows, skittish about the extra challenges of keeping accessibility at the forefront of any productions. He ends up having to make his own projects, finding his place as both an entertainer and an activist, and plowing ahead the whole way. Woven throughout these stories is his journey to discovering and embodying his queer sexuality, finding his way into a minority community that he was not born into and dealing with the unique challenges therein. It’s a great bit of intersectional writing that never lets his identities stand in conflict, as they are both parts of him.

DiMarco’s writing style is warm and accessible; in the introduction he describes the writing process where his co-author Robert Siebert transcribed DiMarco’s ASL into written English, and Siebert captures the natural flow of someone speaking in their mother tongue. Some readers may find it too warm, flirting on the edge of overly precious, but it works well for the very personal story he is telling. For anyone even fleetingly interested in the Deaf community, Deaf education, or even the world of professional modeling, this is a great memoir and a great read.

Would I Recommend It: Yes.