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Helen Keller in Love
Book review of the historical fiction novel by Rosie Sultan
Yeah, that’s right. Helen Keller was once in love.
And let’s cut right to the chase: there are a few steamy scenes in this book.
If you have an issue with that (the idea of Helen Keller being intimate with someone), read another book.
Apparently the notion of Helen Keller in a compromising position bothers a few folks, judging from several reviews I’ve read.
Which is exactly why this historical fiction novel is so important.
Well, one of the reasons, anyway.
“The blind are idolized for the wrong things. It’s strange. The praise I got for being ‘Helen Keller the miracle.’ Everyone loved that. Some people even praised me for becoming a Socialist — a Wobbly, even — supporting the Lawrence strikers, working to wipe out slums in New York City, and rallying against wars around the world. I believed that plutocrat President Taft when, at a speech for the New York Association for the Blind, he asked, ‘What must the blind think about the Declaration of Independence, since they are not granted the same rights as others in our society?’ In my blindness and deafness I proved I was equal — more than equal — in my intellect. But no one, from the time I was a young woman, would accept my having a lover. It was…
