Book Club: October Edition

My book club has really pushed my boundaries this month. I generally like my fiction to be stories that take me away and let me forget about the real world and all of the problems in it. This month's novel, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, firmly plants me in real world problems that people must deal with every day.

Too sad to be witty right now

The story focuses on Alice, a tenured professor at Harvard with doctorates in the study of psychology and language. One day, Alice can't remember the word for something during a lecture. The next she finds herself momentarily lost less than a mile from home. What follows is a heartbreaking spiral as Alice is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and rapidly begins to lose her memories and ability to function. Equally heartbreaking is the effect Alice's disease has on her family, the sadness as she no longer recognizes her own children, and the difficult decisions that must be made concerning her care.

This novel is very well written and will give the reader a very good insight into what patients and family members go through when one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I'll compare this one to Flowers for Algernon, in that the point of view is entirely from the person with the affliction and not always trustworthy. The most difficult passages for me were not the ones where Alice couldn't remember things, but the one's where Alice's husband John seemed to be withdrawing from the situation by working too much. It's difficult for me not to resent him for working so much during the few months she had left mentally and for any of the moments that Alice was able to perceive how painful it was for him to watch her deteriorate. Conversely, I suspect no one could be able to handle perfectly watching their loved one slowly lose themselves. The only other point I'll bring up about this novel is that it is a good picture of how a well off educated family who loves each other handles Alzheimer's, as heartbreaking as this is, I suspect a novel about a patient who doesn't much close family or financial resources to help cope with it could just kill me.

Tea is feeling blue today.

Book Club novels I get to read at work, since the club is part of my duties. This particular novel I had to read while shut away in my back office because I could not stop crying and often had to pause to recompose myself. So if tearjerkers are your cup of tea, this one's for you.