Still Alice

I know I'm usually your cutesy, bubbly perch librarian, but today I'd like to be a little more serious and share a book that's personal for me.

Still Alice is by Lisa Genova, a Harvard neuroscientist who uses her background and knowledge to write a story about a college professor dealing with early onset Alzheimer's disease.  It's a human story taking us along on Alice's journey from when she starts recognizing that her memory is beginning to fail to when she can no longer recall family members and must be constantly supervised.

My grandmother started dealing with Alzheimer's disease sometime in her late sixties, and she struggled with it for roughly 10 years until she passed away this year at the age of 81.  I started to read Still Alice when I was flying back from her funeral, and oddly enough, I found some comfort in reading it and having a better understanding of what she was probably going through.

Alzheimer's is a disease that takes its toll not only on the person with it, but also on everyone around that person.  It's scary for the afflicted person not to know where they are and who are the people around them.  They're not able to follow conversations or formulate responses because their brain cells no longer transmit information between each other.  As for those around the person, it's heartbreaking to see their loved one struggling and turning into a person who's only a shadow of  someone they used to know.

Genova does a great job of conveying information about Alzheimer's without being too technical and without losing the human, emotional side of the disease.  When I was reading Still Alice, there were many moments when I recognized my grandmother in Alice, and I'm sure others besides me will see a number of similarities between Alice's behavior and the behavior of someone they know or have known with Alzheimer's.

If your life has been touched in some way by Alzheimer's disease, Genova's Still Alice will help you understand both its physical and mental progression.  And if you don't know someone with Alzheimer's, the book is a well written human story about a person and a family dealing with an unexpected turn of events in their lives.  I highly recommend reading it.

Yours ever sincerely from the perch.