The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth– 338 pages
ARC from St. Martin’s Press
Book Blurb:
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease at only thirty-eight years old, knows that her family is doing what they believe to be best when they take her to Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. She also knows there’s just one other resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.
When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind house. When she meets Anna and Luke she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna’s and Luke’s families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.
My Review: 4 stars
The Things We Keep introduced me to the unbearable hardship of having dementia at age 38. It also allowed me to watch love come to people in the oddest and most unique circumstances.
Told in two different time periods, one from Anna, the young woman admitted to the Residential Care Facility as we see her decline, and the other told in current time, from the POVs of the new staff cook and her little girl. Both story lines offer interest, love, and loss as well as some insight into the title’s meaning.
What is love? Can it be forgotten? Erased? Can love begin anew each day? Can you love someone if they’re corrupt or have passed on? These are all questions that form around these three characters. Reading about and feeling Anna’s deterioration is plain awful. However, there are moments of brightness, which allows this book to read in a lighter manner than others with this same subject such as Still Alice.
Quotes I liked:
In the end, you just remember the moments of joy. When all is said and done, those are the things we keep.”
-“’If I don’t remember, will I have been here at all?’ But maybe her question was flawed. Maybe it doesn’t matter what you remember. Maybe if someone else remembers and speaks your name, you were here.”
-“There’s more lust in a residential care facility than in high-school.”
-“…the best cure for melancholy is your girlfriends.”
-“Nothing can undo time.”
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