How hiding his deafness ruined novelist David Lodge's life - Daily Mail 20th May 2008

A retired academic is hovering on the periphery of a noisy party, trying to hear what the young blonde is saying. Too embarrassed to admit he's deaf, he finds himself having to nudge ever closer to her cleavage, only adding to his mortification. If the opening scene of David Lodge's new novel, Deaf Sentence, convincingly portrays the awkwardness of hearing loss, it is because the novelist knows how embarrassing it can be, particularly if you refuse to admit you have a problem.

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