Still Alice by Lisa Genova was a recommendation from a friend. I was a bit dubious at first as it is a story about dementia and being a little squeamish, I'm not mad on books about illnesses and disease and disfigurement. Give me a gory crime novel in technicolour detail any day. However, I value her opinion, and like me, she reads A LOT!
Alice, the main character, is proud of the life she has worked so hard to build. She is a
Harvard professor, with a successful husband and three grown
children. At first when Alice begins to grow forgetful she just
dismisses it, but when she gets lost in her own neighbourhood she
realises that something is terribly wrong. She finds herself in the
rapid and terrifying downward spiral of Alzheimer’s disease. She is only 50 years old.I was 49 when I read this story and I've noticed that lately I regularly forget people's names, what I'm doing, why I'm searching in the fridge and what was on the shopping list I just wrote but left on the kitchen bench!
I actually love my memory...the things I remember even astound me sometimes. So when I can't remember something I think I should be able to, I fly into a panic. I have told a friend of mine to make sure she rescues me if I turn up to a staff meeting and sit there expecting someone else to run it! (You have to read the book to understand the significance of this.)
Still Alice, despite it's topic, was a wonderful story. Lisa Genova has a gift of getting into the heads of her characters, relating from the inside out what it's like to suffer from a debilitating disease. By reading this book I gained an understanding of those affected by early-onset Alzheimer’s and remained moved and inspired long after I had finished reading it. So moved that I recommended it to my Book Club.
Their reactions were a bit like my initial ones - and most didn't read the book. But the ones who did loved it. So again, despite it's topic I'd highly recommend it.
