Monday, July 27, 2015

Still Alice

Still Alice
by Lisa Genova

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: 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 of early-onset Alzheimer's disease changes her life.

As the inevitable descent into dementia strips away her sense of self, fiercely independent Alice struggles to live in the moment.  While she once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must reevaluate her relationship with her husband, a respected scientist; her expectations of her children, and her ideas about herself and her place in the world.
from the book jacket

Review: I wasn't sure how much I would like this book and relate to it since it is about a fifty year old woman who has Alzheimer's but I could not put this book down!  As the book goes on, Alice just gets more and more disoriented and confused and your heart just breaks for her and her family.  There were times I teared up while reading about Alice's difficulty recognizing her children and her husband.  There was a time that Alice gave a speech about what she wanted for patients with Alzheimer's and it makes you really think about how patients should be treated.  My one complaint with this book is the technicalities and all the science terms.  There were parts I just had to skim because I wasn't following the science/medicine that the characters were talking about.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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