Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet is an empowering novel about older women. The protagonist is a 92-year-old woman with hearing loss who, after receiving an ear trumpet, learns she must move into a nursing home. The nursing home is quite fantastical in itself, as each resident lives in a unique cottage—for example, in a shoe, a birthday cake, or a lookout tower. Otherwise, the nursing home isn’t a very good place, so the elderly women begin to rebel. Women who have been pushed aside because of their gender and, once again, because of their age.
The story defies logical storytelling, with a plot that shifts, is imaginative, and humorous. Magical realism. The author’s son, Pablo Weisz-Carrington, has illustrated the book. The introduction refers to a classic work of surrealism. So be it. Compelling storytelling.