Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Read for: Book Club
I wasn’t sure about this book when I first found out we were going to be reading it for book club – I wondered why I’d be interested in reading about Alzheimer’s. But I really enjoyed it.
Alice is a super smart, famous Harvard professor of linguistics when at 50 she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The book is really just about her struggle with her declining memory. It shows a little bit about her family’s struggle as well but what I liked most about the book was that is was told from Alice’s point of view. It was really interesting to see inside her mind and hear her thoughts as the disease progressed.
I’ve never had any experience with Alzheimer’s. My family has a strong cancer history but I’ve never had any family member with Alzheimer’s. It was quite an eye-opener for me to read this book and really understand how frustrating and depressing this disease would be to have or watch a family member struggle with. In the book, right after her diagnosis, Alice states that she would rather have cancer than Alzheimer’s. I had actually thought that myself before she even said that. The thing about Alzheimer’s is that there is no fighting it…and there aren’t really any amazing treatments either. The other thing that would be tough is that if you have the particular gene that Alice has, you have a 100% chance of getting the disease. The gene that is inherent in my family only carries an 80% chance of developing the disease (which isn’t great statistically but I’ll take it over 100%!).
At first I had a couple of complaints but I think I’ve resolved them. First, the book became increasingly choppy and less detailed toward the end and it seemed almost like Genova had just gotten bored and just wanted to get it over with, but then I realized that because the story was told from Alice’s point of view, it totally made sense. Of course things would be more choppy and less detailed because her life probably seemed like a series of small moments – she was basically living entirely in the present with really hardly any memories of the past. The second complaint I had is that is seemed like there was a lot of technical stuff. Normally, I don’t think this would have bothered me but I was trying to read the book quickly (I forgot about book club and didn’t start reading the book until the morning of – oops!) and I just didn’t need all that extra. But it wasn’t overly complicated or in depth so I don’t think it would bother most people.
The other thing about reading this book is that it’s made me oversensitive to lapses in my own memory. I’ve been very sleep deprived lately so there are a lot of gaps in my memory and after reading this book I started to realize just how many things I was forgetting but I also noticed where the strengths are in my mind. I’m really good at remembering dates and appointments (I have a calendar but hardly ever look at it) but I’m terrible with names (which as a teacher is a terrible thing!) and my vocabulary is definitely suffering lately. It also reminded me of a migraine I had once. I get regular migraines with no memory loss but once I had one and I couldn’t remember people’s names, including my cousin, a colleague, Tylenol and my own son! It was really scary not being able to remember my own son’s name, I can’t imagine going through that on a regular basis.
Overall it was a great book – I learned a lot. The book club discussion was great. There was a lot to talk about. There are several people in my club who have family members with Alzheimer’s and they all thought it was very realistic. I can’t wait to read her next book, Left Neglected, about a woman who suffers a brain injury and no longer perceives information coming from the left.
Tags: Lisa Genova
September 18th, 2010 at 10:51 am
This is an all time favourite book, glad you enjoyed it. Found you from Lynne’s blog
http://lynnesbookreviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Alzheimer%27s