William Morrow, 2022. 317 pages. Biography
A cultural icon of the international Deaf community, Nyle DiMarco is half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. One day after he was born, DiMarco "failed" his first test – a hearing test – to the joy and excitement of his parents. In this moving and engrossing memoir, he shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir; it is a cultural anthem – a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, DiMarco’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf family members, he opens windows into the Deaf experience.
I haven't seen the reality shows where DiMarco earned his fame, and I didn't really know who he was when I started this book, but I did have an interest in his story, and it only grew the more I read. Intersectionality is the concept that any given individual belongs to several different identities at the same time, such as LGBT and Deaf, in DiMarco's case. It's refreshing to hear stories about how multiple identities interact and overlap in the life of a single person, and I was grateful for the safe spaces DiMarco has been working to create for many marginalized communities. I'm also always interested to self-discovery and coming out stories; it really is so different for each of us.