Exclusive interview with author Deeanne Gist and a review of her new novel about an inventor who learns lip-reading at the Chicago World’s Fair
Rating: Three Stars
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
“One of my fans, Monica Bruenjes, is a comic book artist and after reading my book decided to ink my main characters, Cullen and Della,” says It Happened at the Fair author Deeanne Gist. “Then she posted her drawing on my Facebook page. How fun is that!”
It Happened at the Fair traces the controversy of teaching deaf students lip-reading instead of sign language. The prejudices against the deaf are experienced through the reactions to protagonist’s growing deafness. The historical facts are well researched and Gist incorporates her facts well. Maybe too well, there’s so much historical detail. You may want to skip pages of historical detail that don’t move the story forward, but there is a light religious element to the story and a sweet romance, but it tends to get lost the historical elements.
The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair draws people from all over the world to see what’s new and exciting. Cullen McNamara is an inventor at the fair hoping to sell his latest invention. However, the noise in the Machine Hall makes it difficult to hear anything. Although not deaf, Cullen has the idea learn how to read lips. He hires deaf tutor Della Wentworth to teach him.
Della is young and dedicated to her profession. She is cautious at first, since Cullen is quite a bit older then she and his motives for learning lip-reading – mainly financial – are not in his favor. But as Della teaches Cullen she begins to trust him. Will he break her heart?
“The springboard for my idea was the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair,” says Gist. “With that one detail, I went to the reference part of the library and found two huge, oversized albums filled with pictures and descriptions of the exposition. In one was a picture of a woman teaching children. It turned out, she and her deaf students were part of an exhibit and she was teaching them to lip-read. I ground to a halt and immediately thought of all kinds of fun scenarios that could take place with a heroine who could lip-read. And Della Wentworth was born.”
Gist notes that many famous people were inspired by the World’s Fair. “Helen Keller attended when she was thirteen years old,” says Gist. “She was the only person to be able to touch the hands-off exhibits…like the African diamonds…so she could ‘see’ the fair too.”
Gist has written nine historical novels, love stories set between 1644 and 1904. Among the awards her novels have garnered are the National Readers’ Choice, Book Buyers’ Best, Golden Quill, Booklist’s Top Ten Inspy of the Year and two Christy awards. She also has four RITA nominations. It Happened at the Fair has not been optioned for film or television.
Gist bases her books on little known incidents that actually happened in history. “For example, during the Gilded Age the wealthy had enormous homes filled with house servants. The one rule was: No romance below stairs. If an attraction between two staff members was suspected, the man would, in some cases, be thrashed and the woman, in all cases, would be thrown out on the street. So (her acclaimed novel) Maid to Match is about a footman and a parlor maid who fall in love and have to keep it a secret or risk losing it all.”
Deeanne Gist lives in Houston her husband and their border collie Cowboy. She is a native of Texas.
It Happened at the Fair by Deeanne Gist. Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Howard Books (April 30, 2013), Language: English ISBN-10: 1476738491 ISBN-13: 978-1476738499 $21.99
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