Still Alice

Fifty-year-old Alice has a wonderful life: a loving husband, a fulfilling career as a tenured psychology professor at Harvard, and three successful adult children. Sometimes she forgets things, such as where she put her keys. Like most of us would, she chalks it up to normal aging memory problems. Then one day she becomes totally lost while running only a few miles from her house on a route she has taken many times before. After many doctor visits, Alice is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a New York Times bestselling novel that tells the story of Alzheimer's from the victim's perspective. It is heartbreaking to watch as Alice's thought processes become confused, repeat themselves, and eventually break down completely. Genova does an amazing job of showing the reader what it would feel like to have the disease: the fear, bewilderment, and confusion as short term memory dies. Alice's relationships with her family and friends are particularly poignant and realistic, as her family is afraid, angry, and sad in turns and her colleagues avoid and fear her.

This novel is an excellent character study of a woman who is literally losing her mind bit by bit. The reader feels the fear and confusion Alice feels as she surrenders more and more functioning and memory to the disease, and your heart will break as you watch her condition deteriorate further. A terribly sad and moving look at a woman with a disease for which there is no cure.

Shannon Wood - Adult Services Librarian