Reading Guide for House of the Deaf by Lamar Herrin

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About House of the Deaf
Ben Williamson, a divorced father of two, is “slightly overweight, somewhat shambling, not quite mysterious” and seemingly ineffectual. But we soon learn he is also capable of a serious act. The serious act in Lamar Herrin’s elegant novel, House of the Deaf, is a quest to avenge the accidental death of Ben’s older daughter by Basque separatists in Spain. Michelle Williamson was killed while on her junior year abroad, caught in a bombing on her morning run. Ben is bewildered by the loss and angered, especially by the way life moves on in the very place Michelle died—a public park in the heart of Madrid. Ben travels to Spain in search of answers, in search of the person or people responsible, and finally into Basque country for a final act of revenge. Like her father, younger daughter Annie also seeks closure. Annie wasn’t close with Michelle, and now her father seems inaccessible, indeed to have disappeared. Through alternating chapters, the book presents the story of Ben and his quest for revenge in Spain and the story of Annie and her quest to locate her father both physically and emotionally. Their quests converge in the northern Basque country where the inevitable confrontation unfolds. The author presents a rich portrait of Spanish history and traditions that is coupled with the very contemporary issue of how we live in these violent times.

About the Author
Lamar Herrin is the author of four previous novels, including The Lies Boy Tell that became a 1994 made-for-television drama starring Kirk Douglas and Craig Nelson. His short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Harper’s and Epoch. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Cornell University and has served as director of Cornell University's Study Abroad program in Spain. He brings an intimate knowledge of Spanish geography, history, art, and tradition to his latest novel. His memoir, Romancing Spain, the story of how he met and fell in love with his wife of 30 years, is also available from Unbridled Books.

Questions for Discussion
1. The author has chosen to name the novel House of the Deaf, after Goya’s painting, House of the Deaf Man. What significance do you think the title of this book has for the story that unfolds? Why did the author choose to elevate the House of the Deaf Man to the title, rather than Goya’s Duelo a Garrotazos, which Paula felt she needed to show Ben at the Prado?

2. Ben is looking for a face; “he’d need a face to make a fair exchange” for Michelle’s death. Why does Ben choose Armando Ordoki over all the other faces he sees on the streets, on television and in the newspapers he reads?

3. Ben’s ex-wife Gail tells Annie that “the kind of love your father believes in doesn’t exist – it never did.” What does Gail mean by this and how has it colored Ben’s relationship with his ex-wife, his children, and with Paula?

4. Annie makes it clear to Ben that she does not want him to tell her where he has gone and she refrains from examining the contents of the glove compartment after understanding that Ben’s travel information is there. Why does she not want to know where he is and what ultimately changes her mind?

5. Leslie, the woman in the sidewalk café, tells her story about her trip to the Zambezi River and explains how she came to understand that they were on the scene because the animals had decided to let them be; the animals were the masters and the tourists were powerless intruders. Does this vignette ring true as to other relationships in the book?

6. Ben believes that Michelle was a planner and knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it, while Annie, like Ben, has a quester’s belief that at any given moment there are always destinations to be had. How did these differences between his daughters impact their relationship with each other and with their mother, and how do they influence Ben’s relationship with his ex-wife and daughters?

7. Ben spends a lot of his time contemplating the endless stream of couples promenading on the boulevards and in the parks, and he believes he has made a mistake with Paula when he lets them become part of promenade. What do the promenading couples signify to Ben and how do they relate to his daughter’s death? Why did Ben think it was a mistake to join them?

8. Two themes are carried throughout the book, the breakdown of one’s lines and sinking into the mud. In the black-and-white Goya painting show people whose lines have broken down, and in Duelo a Garrotazos the duelers are knee-deep in the mud they cannot escape. Leslie’s African animals are in the mud and Patti and her daughter play in the mud; Ben’s ex-wife believes he is bogged down in mud or quicksand. Ben and Paula look in the mirror and see their lines breaking down; Armando Ordoki’s face is like wax, breaking down. What do these two themes have in common and why are they important to the story?

9. At the conclusion of the book Annie plans to stay awhile with Ben and Paula and leave them in peace: “One day you’ll look for me and I’ll be gone.” Why is Annie determined to leave in this way? Is her decision influenced by her label as the “back-up daughter”?

10. Ben remembers his early impression of the Basque separatists as brave and heroic in their self-sacrifice; at first they seemed to him superior beings defending their claim to self-determination and independence. The same could be said for freedom fighters in World War II committing acts of violence against their German oppressors. But when one of those “heroic” acts of violence causes the death of an innocent loved one, are the perpetrators still superior beings and freedom-fighters, or are they terrorists? At the conclusion of the book, what are Ben’s feelings about the Basque separatists? How do you feel about the Basques and their cause after reading this book? Do you think your answer might be different if you had read this book before September 11, 2001?

Praise for HOUSE OF THE DEAF
"Lamar Herrin redefines vengeance and innocence in House of the Deaf, a tale of political violence in which the life-blood of the spirit confronts the cold blood of the terrorist — a finely wrought novel of near-mystical dimension.” —William Kennedy

“Lamar Herrin has always written beautifully. Now, in a manner reminiscent of J. M. Coetzee, he looks at the effect of contemporary political violence on one particular family. House of the Deaf is a powerful, poetic, and suspenseful book." —Lorrie Moore

"Herrin explores an everyman's quest for retribution for overwhelming political violence in his latest novel (after The Lies Boys Tell; The Unwritten Chronicles of Robert E. Lee). Long considered a man of dreamy inaction by his ex-wife, 48-year-old Kentuckian Ben Williamson undergoes a sea change when he travels to Madrid to understand the death of his daughter Michelle, killed three years earlier in a Basque separatist terrorist act while she was studying abroad. . . . culminates in a confrontation with an unexpected and emotionally satisfying outcome that stays true to the scar of terrorism. . . a subtle, suspenseful treatment of a personal response to terrorism." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"I find myself completely engrossed by it. Herrin writes so compellingly that I had that wonderful, and rare, experience of being transported to the world of the main characters, Ben and Annie. My own real world fell away and I was truly IN the book. What I especially like is how delicately Herrin depicts the slightest changes in perceptions and feelings of his characters. While the book has its exotic locale, Spain, and the plot the elements of a political thriller, its real strength is in Herrin's portrayal of its complex characters. I hope the book gets the attention of all the independent book sellers. It certainly deserves to." —Irma Wolfson, Buyer, The Reading Room Bookstore

"With a depth of characterization and a delicacy of observation recalling James Salter, Lamar Herrin takes the reader along on history-haunted Ben Williamson's pilgrimage to Spain. House of the Deaf locates the often painful place where, against our will, the personal becomes political." —Stewart O'Nan, author of The Good Wife

Recommended Reading
Saturday – Ian McEwan
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
Lords of Navarre: A Basque Family Saga - José Maria Lacambra-Loizu
Death of a Nationalist - Rebecca Pawel
The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
The Honorary Consul – Graham Greene

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