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Welcome to another Monthly Book Review! This month I read Still Alice by Lisa Genova.
In case you haven’t heard of it, here’s a short synopsis of the book via Goodreads:
“Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life–and her relationship with her family and the world–forever.
At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Judith Guest’s Ordinary People.”
This. Book.
You will laugh and cry and slowly start to feel a little crazy, as you see what it might be like to slowly forget everything. It is a very scary and real look into what I imagine it would be like to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
The author is spot-on in the writing of the entire cast of characters. Alice- newly diagnosed, scared and confused, and everything in between. Her academic husband, who tugs at your heartstrings, not knowing how to deal with this news. Alice’s children, who all react differently. This book is a heartwrenching depiction of what an entire family might experience in the light of such a diagnosis. And this is the first time I’ve ever seen such a diagnosis through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it.
I think this sort of disease is something we all fear in the back of our minds, which may make this book hard to read for some. I encourage you to read it anyway. It is by far one of the best books I’ve read this year. I could not put it down. My husband looked at me like I was insane when I burst into tears several times. It’s that good.
And this is rare for me, but I don’t think I have anything bad to say about it.
Come back next month as we will have another review for you!What did/didn’t you like about this book?
