Swell read

February 24, 2010

It’s rare that I will read a book and it so moves me that I will push my friends to borrow it from me. Sure, I read plenty of books and if asked for recommendations, there are a handful that with some thought I’d suggest, but to be pushing the book into a girlfriend’s hand and say “You have to read this,” that’s not an everyday occurrence.

And ironically, the premise of Still Alice didn’t interest me initially. I knew it was about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s and I didn’t think I’d relate to it or that it’d be a topic I’d be particularly interested in reading for enjoyment (besides researching and reading about lots of health topics as it is every day, it just seemed depressing). But the glowing praise on its back cover (“A work of pure genius” and “A masterpiece…”) was enough to convince me crack it open.

Still Alice is Lisa Genova’s debut novel and it’s simply stunning. Saying that it is vivid and eloquent hardly does it justice. The book takes you inside the experience of Alice (a Harvard professor) as she becomes increasingly forgetful and disoriented, and her viewpoint as her life evolves with her Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment.

And yes, it’s frightening, and you’ll be contemplating whether early-onset Alzheimer’s is something you will suffer from one day — but even if you have hypochondriac tendencies, I still think you should read this book. You’d be doing yourself a disservice by missing out on its beauty.

P.S. Genova so gorgeously depicts Boston that I’m hoping to return there someday soon for a visit. My first and only time there was back in university when I was more interested in picking up a Harvard sweatshirt and checking out Starbucks (which was not yet on every street corner in Canada).

Filed under: Culture,Healthy Swellness

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, book, read