Delivered with elegance and honesty, But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World by Claudia Marseille is an excellent memoir about the challenges of growing up with an invisible disability. Though she had not spoken by age four, Marseille’s parents, who had left Nazi Germany for America, had not noticed that something was wrong with their daughter as they were still acclimating to their new life. Instead of sending her to a school for deaf students, they chose to mainstream her at public schools. Surrounded by hearing classmates, Marseille encountered numerous obstacles. She struggled to make friends, fit in, and had a fear of stigma while still navigating other challenges in school and at home. With skill and sincerity, Marseille covers her family and romantic relationships, her path to becoming clearer about her Jewish heritage and identity, and her career.

Claudia Marseille’s writing is fluid, inviting, and easy to follow. Her well-rendered experiences capture the emotional and mental toll she faced as a person with disabling hearing loss. Her determination to succeed despite the daunting issues she faced is inspiring. She faces detours and disappointments with immense courage. Reading about her growth during her coming-of-age years as she examined her relationship with her father and explored her Jewish identity was empowering. But You Look So Normal is a triumphant, encouraging coming-of-age story for those who have faced the challenges of living with a disability and an eye-opening read for those who have not. It is a heart-rending story but also an account of fortitude and success.

Most of us don't know how difficult it is for people with hearing disabilities to hear or understand the people around them. In But You Look So Normal, Claudia Marseille describes how severe hearing loss can affect one's life. This memoir encapsulates the many challenges Claudia had to navigate due to her hearing loss problem. She reveals what caused this condition, how much she struggled to follow discussions and insert herself into social situations, and how vulnerable she was to danger at the hands of others. She also reveals how she learned to hear, speak, and lipread, her complicated relationship with her German refugee parents, how their divorce affected her, the humiliation, isolation, lack of a sense of community, and difficulties in speaking and understanding others.

Claudia Marseille's long journey from silence into sound inspires many, as it shows that no matter the obstacles, one can learn to cope with and even take charge of one's disability. But You Look So Normal brims with raw emotion, honesty, personality, hope, and the challenges of being different, misunderstood, lonely, and isolated. Claudia's determination to be protective of her mother's feelings, heal her disappointment over her father's lack of support and involvement in her life, find a career compatible with hearing loss, and ultimately make peace with her disability are beautifully captured in the text. This remarkable memoir is not just for those now handling hearing loss but also for their friends, family, and people around them. It's a source of hope and an invitation to be more empathetic with those affected by hearing loss.