Still Alice by Lisa Genova-292 pages
Book Blurb:
Alice Howland – Harvard professor, gifted researcher and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children – sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home. She has taken the route for years, but nothing looks familiar. She is utterly lost. Medical consults reveal early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Alice’s slowly but inevitably loses memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before. Genova’s debut shows the disease progression through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so readers feel what she feels – a slowly building terror.
My Review: 5 stars
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I swore I wouldnβt read this book and I was told it was just so scary and so depressing. As a reviewer/blogger I backed out on the deal with myself as I really shouldnβt be βscaredβ of any book. I loved this book. I hated this book. Rather than scaring me, this book scarred me. With gut wrenching passion, this author translated for the reader an intimate look into early onset Alzheimerβs disease and the wreckage it can cause for all involved. A beautiful family with the typical disfunction of all families is subjected to their motherβs rapidly progressing disease.
Well told and pitch perfect dialogue makes this a winner of a book. I read a lot and itβs hard to get me to cry. For this one, have some tissue handy.
Quotes I liked:
She wished sheβd been his passion.β
– βWhat if I see you, and I donβt know that youβre my daughter, and I donβt know that you love me?β
βThen, Iβll tell you that I do, and youβll believe me.β βAlice liked that…..The mother in her believed that the love she had for her daughter was safe from the mayhem in her mind, because it lived in her heart.β
– βMy yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment. Some tomorrow soon, Iβll forget that I stood here before you and gave this speech. But just because Iβll forget it some tomorrow doesnβt mean that I didnβt live every second of it today. I will forget today, but that doesnβt mean that today didnβt matter.β
Hi there, the December edition of Books You Loved is now live. Here is the link Books You Loved December Edition Please do pop by and link in a post about a book you loved. Maybe this one? Cheers