From the back of the audio case: Fifty-year-old psychologist Alice Howland is content with life. Not only is she a revered Harvard professor, but she also has a successful husband and three grown kids. However, Alice’s life is turned upside-down when she succumbs to a degenerative brain disease, leaving her perfect family reeling from her sudden memory loss.
Read by: Lisa Genova
My thoughts: I first came across Lisa Genova when I listened to Left Neglected, which I really liked. I had heard good things about Still Alice, so I decided to listen to it as well, especially when I saw that it was the author herself that did the narration. I really enjoyed the story, and felt that I could somewhat relate, after seeing my great-aunt go through the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.
Still Alice is a beautifully written, heartbreaking novel about the devastating affect Alzheimer’s has on its victims and their families. Author Lisa Genova’s choice of Alice – young, in shape, and intelligent (she’s a Psychiatry Professor at Harvard) – shows that Alzheimer’s can strike anyone, not just the elderly. The book is written from Alice’s viewpoint, but Lisa Genova does a good job of showing the affect of Alzheimer’s not only on Alice, but how her family (John, and their adult children Anna, Tom, and Lydia) struggle with the changes in Alice. I felt that the author also does an excellent job of describing what is going on in Alice’s head as the dementia increases. In fact, she does such a good job that I sometimes forgot the book was fiction and not about a real person.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, not just those affected with this dreadful disease. I look forward to reading more from Lisa Genova.
(I borrowed this audio book from the library.)
I'm reading it right now! It's a future selection for a book group and I thought I'd read ahead. Glad to see you recommend it!
This is one of my favourite of all times, so touching. I agree, it reads like a memoir or nonfiction.