Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

 
This is the Valley Book Club's pick for this month, and when we voted for it, I believe it was the one with the most votes overall. Its timely topic of Alzheimer's disease and its first person narrative had everone intrigued.
 
The book documents a year in the life of Alice Howland, a Harvard linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. It begins with those little "forgetfulness" symptoms, and progresses with a diagnosis for the hereditary gene for the disease. This finding is shocking to her three children, who must then decide how they want their lives to proceed, in fear, in normality, or in joy. The symptoms that Alice experiences progress month by month, and seem very realistic, and so increasingly frightening both for the characters and the reader.
 
As I read, I felt that it was wonderful for an author with such knowledge to write such a needed book on the topic. As I said, I felt it was an extremely realistic portayal, although I have no real experience with the disease. I did find the writing very dry and hard to get through, but perhaps it was this way for a reason, as it did fit the character's personality to some degree and the straightforwardness of her diagnosis. The first time I started the book, I got about a third of the way, and I had to stop. I forced myself to pick it up again and finished it in about an hour. Am I glad I did? I'm not sure. I know this is a part of real life, but perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy it. It was just too real for me, even though I have never had a close loved-one go through this. It was extrememly depressing to me, and while this is natural with such a topic, it left me exhausted and not very satisfied.
 
The character of Alice was very miserable as time went on, but she did seem to still find joy in some things, and that was uplifting. She also didn't seem to get very upset or agitated at the very end of the book with all the "not knowing." She seemed to somehow grow accustomed to her life. I'm just not sure that that is realistic. But maybe it is, and caregivers should take solace in the fact that perhaps Alzheimer's patients do grow comfortable with the simplicity of their world. There are no real decisions to be made and no real conflicts for them other than the physical day-to-day workings of their bodies. So maybe it should be comforting to know that those like Alice can be happy in their simpler lives as long as those around them are caring and comforting always. I will continue to pray that this is true.
 
In the same way that the book A Million Little Pieces was a  realistic account of a life, one that helped thousands of people who read it come to terms with and understand drug addiction, so will Still Alice help those dealing with Alzheimer's. If you need to understand Alzheimer's without getting bogged down in a lot medical terminology or confusing articles on the Internet, then this book could really help.But let me know what you think. Post a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

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