This is a heartbreaking book. I started it and didn’t put it down until it was finished, even though I was crying through most of it. Still Alice is about Alice Howland, a Harvard psychology professor who has spent the last 25 years working side by side with her husband as professors at one of the most prestigious schools in the world. She has an exemplary research and teaching record.
Just before her fiftieth birthday Alice begins to notice that she is forgetting things that she should know. She makes to do lists in the morning and by the afternoon she can not interpret what some of the short notations mean. She gets lost during a run on a route that she has run hundreds of times. That scares her so much that she goes to see her doctor and then a neurologist…and learns that she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.
This story is about the anticipation and fear that she feels as she tries to hold onto her life. As the fear of what is to come creeps upon her, her husband and children, Alice does all that she can to live each day for what it is. She speaks about forgetting her yesterdays and not knowing what her tomorrows hold and how important each and every day is. And it is heartbreaking.
Many of us fear diseases and the weakening of our bodies and minds. This book so thoroughly details the loss that Alice feels as she knows she is forgetting and losing her self, and the loss of those she loves who are helping to walk with her through her journey.
This book is a must read…although be ready to cry. I cannot recommend it enough.
No Comments on "Still Alice by Lisa Genova"