Alice sat at her desk in their bedroom distracted by the sounds of John racing through each of the rooms on the first floor. She needed to finish her peer review of a paper submitted to the Journal of Cognitive Psychology before her flight, and she'd just read the same sentence three times without comprehending it.
Still Alice ~ by Lisa Genova, 2007, literary fiction (Massachusetts), 320 pages, 9/10
Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away. Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life — and her relationship with her family and the world — forever. As she struggles to cope with Alzheimer’s, she learns that her worth is comprised of far more than her ability to remember.
4 comments:
Oh boy, this sounds really similar to what my friend is actually going through. She has early-onset dementia, is only in her late 40's, and was an engineer. She can no longer take care of herself or be alone. This one is too close to home, but I hope you enjoy it. https://cindysbookcorner.blogspot.com/2022/02/first-line-friday-39.html
This was such a good book--a heartbreaking one. My grandmother had vascular dementia and went through a similar experience and I couldn't help but think of her as I read this. This is book that still comes to mind from time to time and really helped me understand what a person goes through when they develop Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. I hope you have a great weekend, Bonnie!
My mother had Alzheimer's Disease, though not early-onset. A nurse once confirmed what I suspected, that putting my mother back under anesthesia the same day for heart surgery could have caused it. The nurse said they now know that was too much anesthesia. Mother lived with me for 25 years, so when she developed Alzheimer's, I was the one who took care of her ... until I couldn't ... because I couldn't leave her alone, and thus could not do my job. And I had to work, which meant I had to put her in a nursing home. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease.
I saw the "Still Alice" movie in 2015 and decided that I wanted to read the book. So I did.
My husband's mother and all her sisters and brothers had Alzheimer's. Now my husband's three cousins all have it. I feel it is just a matter of time for him.
Post a Comment