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 wouldnโt 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 shouldnโt be โscaredโ 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 Alzheimerโs disease and the wreckage it can cause for all involved. A beautiful family with the typical disfunction of all families is subjected to their motherโs rapidly progressing disease.
Well told and pitch perfect dialogue makes this a winner of a book. I read a lot and itโs hard to get me to cry. For this one, have some tissue handy.
Quotes I liked:
She wished sheโd been his passion.โ
– โWhat if I see you, and I donโt know that youโre my daughter, and I donโt know that you love me?โ
โThen, Iโll tell you that I do, and youโll believe me.โ โAlice 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.โ
– โMy 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, Iโll forget that I stood here before you and gave this speech. But just because Iโll forget it some tomorrow doesnโt mean that I didnโt live every second of it today. I will forget today, but that doesnโt mean that today didnโt matter.โ
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