Overview

""Terry Galloway is resilient ... caustic, depraved, utterly disinhibited, and somehow sweetly bubbly, a beguiling raconteuse who periodically leaps onto the dinner table and stabs you with her fork."" -Alison Bechdel An anniversary edition of the laugh out loud memoir, with a new epilogue, from a self-proclaimed ""child freak"" about family, transformation, identity, and the messiness of living ""Terry Galloway is resilient ... caustic, depraved, utterly disinhibited, and somehow sweetly bubbly, a beguiling raconteuse who periodically leaps onto the dinner table and stabs you with her fork."" -Alison Bechdel An anniversary edition of the laugh out loud memoir, with a new epilogue, from a self-proclaimed ""child freak"" about family, transformation, identity, and the messiness of living ""Told with understandable rage, quirky humor, and extraordinary humanity"" (Booklist), Terry Galloway's Mean Little deaf Queer invites readers on her journey from ""child-freak"" to exuberant performance artist. Born in post-WWII Germany, Galloway's fetal nervous system was damaged when her mother was given the experimental antibiotic Mycin while pregnant. As a child growing up in 1960s Texas, she had hallucinations and out of body experiences. At the age of nine, the voices of Galloway's loved ones faded, eventually completely disappearing. It didn't help that over this same time Galloway's ""romantic awe"" of girls was evolving into ""something sweaty and insistent,"" despite her continued experimentation with boys. Rather than sitting on life's sidelines due to her disability and ""otherness,"" Galloway threw herself into living. She continued roughhousing with the neighborhood kids, became a standout at a camp for ""crippled children"", and, years later, earned a theater scholarship to the University of Texas, all while indulging in polysexual exploits ""with the tinker, the tailor, the mescaline maker."" And did she mention her nervous breakdown in New York? Fiercely original, screamingly funny, and with a new epilogue that covers Galloway's life over the last 15 years, including her major decision to get Cochlear implants, Mean Little Deaf Queer will leave readers feeling charmed, heartbroken, and all the while thoroughly entertained.

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9780807019641

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Reviews

This is a damn fine piece of work which is unbelievably powerful.—Dorothy Allison ""This is not your mother's triumph-of-the-human-spirit memoir. Yes, Terry Galloway is resilient. But she's also caustic, depraved, utterly disinhibited, and somehow sweetly bubbly, a beguiling raconteuse who periodically leaps onto the dinner table and stabs you with her fork. Her story will fascinate, it will hurt, and you will like it.""—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home ""The most uncomfortable laughter of the season.""—Out ""One of the finest, most nakedly honest and humorous autobiographies out there to be read. . . . Partly David Sedaris-esque in its slice-of-life essay moments, part slapstick farce, so very real, and always laugh out loud hilarious.""—Rebecca Sarwate, Edge ""[A] humorous and harrowing new memoir.""—The Advocate ""Told with understandable rage, quirky humor, and extraordinary humanity, this remarkable woman's engaging account deserves a large readership.""—Booklist ""A frank, bitingly humorous memoir.""—Kirkus Reviews ""[Galloway] is dexterous in her use of words and devastating with a sense of black humor that brings numerous laugh-out-loud delights.""—John R. Killacky, The Gay and Lesbian Review ""Galloway was born a storyteller, and her narrative gifts are in full force throughout, spinning yarns about herself and her family that mesmerize.""—Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

Author Information

Known for her cross-dressing roles in Shakespeare and at Austin's legendary Esther's Follies, Terry Galloway has toured internationally as a solo artist and with P.S. 122's Field Trips. As a giant rodent, she heads up Mickee Faust, a community theater for Tallahassee's weird, queer, disability community. When not touring, she lives in Tallahassee with her wife, two cats, and a bevy of friends and family.

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