Still Alice by Lisa Genova

I finished the book last night.

This one was good, and a quick read, but don’t expect it to be easy, especially if you have dementia in your family history. I don’t. While that should have given me some comfort, it didn’t.

I’ve had a couple of e-mail exchanges with my book club buddies and we agree on one thing: this book makes you paranoid about every forgotten name or movie. Those “now what did I want in here?” moments take on a whole new meaning.

The other thing the book conveyed was the hopelessness of the Alzheimer diagnosis. There is no cure. The decline is inevitable. In some ways, it’s like dying when you are still there. I admit I felt a gripping despair a couple of times in the story.

So, if you pick it up, expect a wallop. It’s well written but not literary. What the book does, I think, is open a window into the mind of one with dementia.

This time that was enough.

Comments

  1. Anthony says:

    Can you pick this up at a library? Or as an eBook? I’d love to read it.

  2. Cindy says:

    I know there are several copies available at the library. You might need to reserve it, though. I almost bought it as an e-book, so that’s available, too.

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