Mini review: “Still Alice”
It’s rare that I finish a book in one day. Not that I’m a slow reader, I just like to savor the experience of reading a book (yeah, that’s it!). But I just started, and finished this book in less than a day. Of course I’m talking about Lisa Genova’s book Still Alice (aff link). I have written briefly about this book in this post because Lisa originally self-published this book before signing on with a traditional publishing house.
The novel follows Alice Howland, a fifty year old Harvard professor, married and a mother of three. She is, by any measure a successful woman at the top of her game. And this is what makes it so tragic and chilling when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. The symptoms start innocently enough; forgetting words, an occasional appointment and other lapses of absentmindedness we all fall into during the course of our lives. But when she is out running and becomes lost in Harvard Square, a place she has known for 25 years, her life is kicked off track.
It is that scene that many use as the defining moment in Alice’s life – when she gets lost at Harvard Square. But I beg to differ. At that time, her life is still relatively normal and she can still function at her job and with her family. For me, the real defining scene in the novel comes when Alice is alone for a moment in their vacation home, has to go to the bathroom and can’t find it. She ends up wetting herself and when her husband John returns shortly thereafter, she breaks down in tears and says "I don’t know where I am."
For me, that was the "Wow!" moment where the reality of her disease really hits home. Getting lost inside your own house, where you are supposed to feel safe and secure, can be one of the many scary parts about Alzheimer’s Disease. And as the novel progresses, we follow Alice through month after month of declining memory capacity. She forgets who her children are. She forgets what she just did two minutes ago, or what she went upstairs to look for. She even forgets about her successful career as a Harvard professor of psychology – a part of her life that really defined Alice’s identity.
From a technical standpoint, the novel is also interesting. It is written in third person limited. This means the narrator focuses only on Alice. We get to know her thoughts, feeling and fears as she struggles with losing her mind. Other characters are given plenty of detail and are well developed, by they are only the supporting cast around Alice.
This narrative makes the story even more intriguing because we (the reader) begin to view the world through Alice’s eyes. As she gets progressively worse, the other characters come in and out of scenes in a way that makes you think you’re the one who has memory problems, not Alice.
I think the most important part of this novel, is how it shows Alice’s humanity from beginning to end. Even when she’s in the tight grips of Alzheimer’s, she still has feelings and emotions, has opinions about things, and can still give her children worldly advice (even if she doesn’t know who they are). In a way, Alice becomes like a kid again, experiencing the world through the eyes of someone who is not burdened with the memories and reality of functioning in the every day world. She lives in the moment and learns to appreciate little things, like the butterfly necklace she wears that her mom gave her.
Yes, this is a great book and I highly recommend it. After reading Still Alice, you will never think of Alzheimer’s Disease the same way again. Nor will you think of dementia and those who suffer from it the same way again.
Many people have said they couldn’t put it down. I was one of them. So I highly recommend reading this book on a weekend, or when you have a good chunk of time to devote to it without any distractions. Trust me, it’s worth every page!
Related posts
- Mini-Review: “The Miracles of Prato”
- Mini Review: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
- Mini Review: “A Thousand Splendid Suns”
- Review: Harry, Revised
- iPhone Review – One Month Later
Read More: Book Reviews, Reading, Self-Publishing
