| | |  | Amazon Kindle | Home » » » Still Alice | | | | | | | Description: | | Fifty-year-old Alice Howland, a Harvard professor of cognitive psychology, is at the top of her game. Her kids are grown, her marriage secure, her career on fire when suddenly, after mere months of forgetfulness, she finds herself in the rapidly downward spiral of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease.With no cure or treatment, Alice struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away, leaving her unable to work, read, take care of herself, recognize her loved ones—even understand that she has a neurodegenerative disease. Without memory or hope, she is forced to live in the moment, which is in turns beautiful, terrifying, and maddening. Genova uses the successful, articulate, and independent Alice as the perfect vehicle to capture what it feels like to literally lose your mind. You’ll admire Alice’s strength and resourcefulness even as you cry over her losses. Still Alice brings new understanding for all those affected by this terrible neurological disease. An estimated 5.2 million Americans of all ages currently have Alzheimer’s Disease, including 13 percent of all people age sixty-five and over. Approximately 500,000 of those suffer from early onset. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
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334 of 339 found the following review helpful:
 Very MovingMay 02, 2008
By drebbles
When Dr. Alice Howland first starts forgetting things like words when giving a speech, she thinks it might be because of menopause. But when she gets lost jogging near her house, on a route she has taken many times, she knows something is seriously wrong and seeks medical help. Not quite fifty, she is totally unprepared for the diagnosis - early onset Alzheimer's. As the disease progresses, Alice and her husband John learn everything they can about the disease and treatments, but Alzheimer's quickly takes its toll on both Alice and her family.
"Still Alice" is a beautifully written, heartbreaking novel about the devastating affect Alzheimer's has on its victims and their families. Author Lisa Genova's choice of Alice - young, in shape, and intelligent (she's a Psychiatry Professor at Harvard) - shows that Alzheimer's can strike anyone, not just the elderly. The book is written from Alice's viewpoint, but Genova does a good job of showing the affect of Alzheimer's not only on Alice, but how her family (John, and their children - Anna, Tom, and Lydia) struggle with the changes in Alice. Genova does an excellent job of describing what is going on in Alice's head as the dementia increases. In fact, Genova does such a good job that I sometimes forgot the book was fiction and not about a real person.
"Still Alice" takes place over a relatively short period of time (September 2002 to September 2005) and it is frightening how fast the Alzheimer's takes over Alice. Genova skillfully captures the bewilderment Alice feels and there are some moments in the book that are very moving - especially a moment involving a black rug and a moment involving a message a healthier Alice left for a sicker Alice. The reaction of Alice's family as they deal not only with her having Alzheimer's but the fact that her children may inherit the disease is very realistic. Inevitably, of course, life goes on and Genova expertly shows Alice's family as they move on with their lives, even if readers won't always agree with their actions. If I have any quibble with the book, it's that it is one chapter too long - the second to last chapter ended on a poignant note and I think Genova should have stopped the book there.
"Still Alice" is a moving tale about the devastating affect Alzheimer's can have on a family. (A portion of the sale of each novel will go to the Alzheimer's Association.)
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for free. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
67 of 67 found the following review helpful:
art imitates life.....life in my home imitates artJun 03, 2008
By Mary G. Longorio
"Texasbookgirl"
I read this book on a flight to Dallas, Texas to see my father. Through a series of small strokes he was showing the effects of progressive dementia. Family was trying to decide what we should do. I cried all the way through the book. I had seen my father twice beffore this trip and had observed enough to br concerned.
Alice Howland taught cognitive psychology courses at Harvard for over twenty-five years. Alice and her husband, John authored Molecules to Mind, she published papers, and lectured around the world. Her three children were grown and on their own paths (not that she was very happy about Lydia's choice of acting, but she hadn't given up trying to influence her to go back to real school). Her son Tom was doing well in school, daughter Annie and her husband, Charlie are attorneys trying to conceive a first grandchild.
Facing a busy schedule and travel and everyday stress, Alice isn't concerned when she begins to forget little things, where the keys are, names of acquaintances or a momentary sense of disorientation. After all she is fifty and that is part of menopause. .
A trip to her family doctor to get some suggestions for cognitive memory reinforcement and to see if medication is available does not help. Alice is stunned to learn that she has Early Onset Alzheimer's and that there is not very much available for treatment. Telling her husband and children is even harder to face. Eventually she has to face the loss of her teaching and life's work.
"Still Alice" is Alice's voice as she struggles with the advancement of Alzheimer's. As the disease advances, she is living more in the now, and often hurt by her interpretations of family member's words and actions. She reacts with anger and confusion as her world shifts and becomes more unfamiliar and frightening. Her family also has to deal with their emotions. The realization that their funny, loving accomplished mother and wife is slowly disappearing before their eyes are devastating, and they each react differently. Alice tries to stay aware of what is happening, but has the disease advances her voice becomes quieter and briefer. Lisa Genova has a Ph.D in Neuroscience from Harvard University and works with several Alzheimer's organizations as well as serving as the online columnist for the national Alzheimer's Association. Although "Still Alice" is a work of fiction, it is apparent there is much drawn from real life experiences and observations. Genova has given a voice to a population not usually listened to. The characters are facing uncertainty and struggling with Alice's decent into unknowing. There are moments of hilarity as well as heartbreak. This book will touch anyone who works with dementia patients, or who has a friend or loved one with Alzheimer's. (early 2008)
1/19/2009
Less than a year later finds me, the reviewer, caring for my own father in my home as he succumbs more and more to his organic dementia. We have had to uproot him from his home in Texas to move into our home in Utah where either my husband or I can be with him around the clock. We moved into a house and I have drastically cut back on my work load. I keep looking back to the pages where Alice tries to describe her confusion and tries to frame what she wants from those around her so I can somehow meet those same needs in my Father. I fear I am falling short.....there is so much anger directed at me and my husband for moving him away. No matter how hard I have tried I feel I am falling short. "It's nothing personal, Mary....I like your brothers more than you". It's not all gloom and doom. There are glimpses of his sly humor, Dad often says the blessing at dinner and is sure to add "Please bless this food especially since Mary has cooked tonight" that is if he can manage to say all that before we all get the giggles and just say "amen". I work with this type patient everyday at my job, yet it is different in my home caring for my own Father. I reread Still Alice as a roadmap. it is one of my best guides.....though the road is unknown and I feel completely unprepared to travel it. It reminds me that Dad is also traveling down a road that is unknown to him.
83 of 86 found the following review helpful:
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOKSep 03, 2007
By Don Moyer
In "Still Alice" it is uncanny how Lisa Genova gets everything right. Reading it was like reliving the adventure Jenny Knauss and I have had with AD since her diagnosis the first of April 2002.
We have good friends who have written first person accounts of living with AD - Tracy Mobley, Charles Schnieder, and Richard Taylor - and those, and other, particular accounts are invaluable.
Lisa has followed the path of fiction to create a more universal picture of AD. Here many morsels of AD are distilled into the life of one person - Alice - which makes a very potent brew. In fiction Lisa can artfully connect the lurches and crashes of AD and carry the reader along smoothly, but with a powerful driving force. Many a signature morsel of AD is blended so artfully that one doesn't realize that it is there until the taste is almost over - as it is in reality.
And, there is a progressive point of view. Rather than treat people living with AD as victims who need help from the social workers dominating the AD establishment, we should treat Alice as still Alice still living her still real life.
The speech by Alice (pages 249 to 252) to a fictional plenary symposium of the annual Alzheimer's Association Dementia Care Conference of 2005 is a manifesto for the progressive view that our approach to AD should be to help people living with AD enrich their lives and have fun. (Jenny made the same points in a conversation for a plenary symposium at the actual Dementia Care Conference in July 2005.)
This book should be read not just by everyone embarking on an adventure with AD, but by everyone. It will give you the most potent and universal understanding of the AD experience, and it will motivate you to become a champion for the more progressive view of AD.
I predict that this wonderful book will become a best seller because of praise by readers.
103 of 111 found the following review helpful:
 Perceptively hauntingFeb 20, 2010
By Erika (Jawas Read, Too)
Alice Howland is a respected Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Her research has earned her a distinguished position in the literature of psycholinguistics; her publications have become cornerstones of knowledge in her field; her speeches and lectures are in high demand, allowing Alice to remain active in travel. She's married with three adult children, is 50 years old, at the height of her career, but can't remember simple words during lecture, forgets to board a plane, and loses her way on a run back home. In just a few short months Alice is diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's Disease.
The rapid decline of Alice's condition is heart-breaking and alarming. Lisa Genova's expertise as a Neuroscientist gives her a unique perspective on the science of Alzheimer's; her personal experience with the disease gives her an emotional understanding. The narrative is painstakingly verbose with the language of neuropathy, cellular biology, and pharmaceuticals. It's clear from the beginning that Genova's own knowledge fuels Alice's scientific rationalizations. In fact, Alice's husband is a cancer cell biologist; her son, Tom, is a surgeon--what better excuse to exercise the clinical lingo of Alzheimer's than between fellow scientists and intellectuals trained around the words most of us feel we need a translator to understand? While these characters justify the liberal application of unforgiving, medical descriptions, I couldn't help feeling the narrative suffered more from this than it benefited.
As someone with personal experience with Alzheimer's, I appreciated the effort that went into the research for Still Alice. It's a merciless, brutal disease with exhaustive explanations and an overwhelming amount of treatment information. Genova put a lot of professional insight into her prose--it's educational, surely, and sobering to read, but does come off as detached and sterile as the biology itself. I hesitate to say this ruined the book for me because it didn't. It was surprisingly comforting to understand the mechanism of Alzheimer's, the knowledge that's still missing, the areas with vast improvement in research. These explanations, prompted by doctor visits, psychological testing, and exam results, reenforced the framework of Alice's Alzheimer's, rivaled the emotional aspect of the novel. Genova's strengths are clearly supported by her mastery of the science. Her dialogue, however, suffers under long-winded, rote conversations between characters.
Huge blocks of speech are delivered as if partitioned from the rest of the book--the voices of different characters begin to blend together in a unified Talk Of Alzheimer's that includes the same cadence and earnest explanations, the same scientific curiosity. I felt, quite empathetic with Alice. Everyone was participating in the same dissection without her, arguing over the best practical methods involved or what to do with vastly different interpretations of the results. These academic considerations are understandable--all but one of the Howland clan have post-graduate degrees--and, I suppose, necessary. I do feel, and I think I was meant to feel, the division of perspective between the medical and the emotional sides of Alzheimer's; the two always clash in reality.
There are some genuinely touching moments in the book, especially between Alice and Lydia, but also between John and Alice. Their love for each other is obvious at times, but most often, John comes across as resentful and angry--he never seems to catch up to his wife's diagnosis until the very end of the book. Even then, he seems selfish and preoccupied. Juxtaposed against Alice's fears that his work has and will always come before her, John's struggle to maintain a strong footing in his life and not let Alzheimer's ruin it more than it already has, I don't want to forgive his behavior as normal, but it could be.
Overall I can't say whether I enjoyed this book more because of my experience with Alzheimer's (one chapter at the end brought me to tears--I've never cried reading a book. Ever) or because Genova's writing was genuinely moving. I think it's a little of both. Her prose is heavy-handed for the most part, but there are passages that moved me beyond the experience I brought to the text. Sometimes I felt like Genova was having a one-sided conversation with her readers, telling us what Alzheimer's is, what it does, how it affects families and individuals, but isn't that the point? She does do an excellent job of mapping the progression of Alzheimer's. As Alice falls deeper into her own dementia, lines begin repeating themselves with a rhythm so easy it's frightening. I found myself being drawn into these cyclical diversions and marveling at how perceptive Genova is--and how talented--to bring the disease to a relatable level.
I could have done without some of the more detailed explanations and repetitious terms, but that's an opinion of style that other readers may find appealing, or even helpful. If anyone needs help coping, I do think Alice's fictional experience does help put the disease into perspective.
19 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 A Lively Read About DevastationMar 16, 2009
By John Thorndike
"Author: The Last of His Mind: A Year in The Shadow of Alzheimer's"
Five stars for the story, the inexorable and electrifying train wreck of Alice Howland's mind.
Four stars for the writing, workmanlike with occasional deft passages.
Three stars for the dialogue, often flavorless or clichéd.
The novel gets off to a gangly start, and by page 18, when Alice tells her daughter, "You're not getting any younger, Lydia. Life goes by too fast," I made a note in the margin: "Only Alzheimer's will save this book." And soon enough, it did. Anyone with the least knowledge of dementia knows where Alice is headed, but Lisa Genova finds plenty of conflict in Alice's struggles to hold on to her thoughts, and in the strained reactions of her husband and three grown children.
Sometimes you can feel the author's research creaking in the background. But when the book anchors down on Alice and her confusions, the story is just right. There's Alice early on, covering up her lapses in memory and the words she can't pull up, fooling almost everyone but herself--but at a party, to everyone's embarrassment, she fails to recognize a woman she'd met only ten minutes earlier.
"Still Alice" is a lively read about devastation. Some of the sidelines in the novel's plot barely matter--but the steady unmooring of Alice's mind grabbed me on page after page. The story is never without tension, because we want to see what happens, how fast it will happen, and how the author will handle a mind that's losing track of itself. She handles it well, having worked hard to imagine early-onset Alzheimer's from the inside, from Alice's point of view.
Anyone interested in Alzheimer's and other dementias will find this a powerful book.
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