The Perfect Stutter

Book Review by Edward Shvets

In The Perfect Stutter, author Paul H. Brocklehurst reveals how stuttering throws light on the human condition. He integrates lessons from his personal, often painful, experiences with spiritual and medical theory to gain control over stuttering. Brocklehurst shows, through parable and research alike, that the whole of life is greater than the part of stuttering.

Initially, living with stuttering was the primary source of Brocklehurst’s misfortune, however, it also kept him on a path of persistent learning and self-improvement/discovery. To be sure, Brocklehurst’s stuttering made him endure everything from a “traumatic” (3) French oral exam and failing his interview for secondary school to dealing with “major misunderstandings” (38) in adult life and even a leave of absence and ultimate departure from Medical School (65). Yet these seemingly irrecoverable setbacks actually encouraged him to reevaluate both stuttering and his own desires in life. He discovered Dr. Charles Van Riper’s The Nature of Stuttering (1971), Zen teachings, and Covert Repair Hypothesis. He learned methods for improvement that he would otherwise never have come across. In the end, Brocklehurst went back to university to complete a Speech Therapy degree, which better suited him than medical school, and “changed” his “understanding of Stuttering in such a way that there was no way [he] could still be afraid of it” (242). In essence, Brocklehurst presents a story of revelation and redemption.

Brocklehurst chronicles experiences and beliefs unique to him, but in doing so, foregrounds a principle relevant to all those who stutter. “Had I believed,” he concludes, “that it is normal to produce some minor blocks from time to time throughout adult life…and that such blocks are normally transient and benign, maybe those relapses could have been avoided” (388). In other words, speech resembles life—it can follow a bumpy road but only loses meaning and momentum when someone succumbs to one pitfall along the way and stops moving forward. The “perfect stutter” of the title, therefore, aptly captures Brocklehurst’s life journey, full of bumps yet overflowing with meaning. To the reader who stutters, whatever their background and aspirations, Brocklehurst offers a crucial lesson that took him decades to realize: it’s okay to stutter once in a while and do not let stuttering obstruct a life that can otherwise be very well lived.

From the Fall 2021 Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.