Guest Review by Gina: Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice
written by Lisa Genova
published by iUniverse

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book: Yes, I actually did enjoy it. The first few chapters didn’t lead me to believe that I would like it, but by the end, I was glad I’d read the book. There is a lot of heart in the novel. I read certain chapters and could feel every bit of Alice’s struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease. There was a quote from the book that really stuck with me: “I’m losing my yesterdays.” I think it is the perfect quote for me to understand what Alzheimer’s patients could feel like as they slowly feel themselves disappearing.

What I loved, too, about this book is that the family dynamic seemed believable. There are so many times I have read a book and felt as though the family wasn’t believable. And yet in this story, every single person had a voice that was clear and full of emotion. It carried the story into something deeper than a novel about a woman with early onset Alzheimer’s — it was about a family’s struggle as well.

This book really helped me to see all angles of how this disease could affect a family. It made me think about my children and myself, which is what I loved about this book. It helped me reflect on life and what if all my yesterdays were gone.

Would I recommend it: Yes, I would!

~ Gina ~

About the book – from Goodreads: Alice Howland—Harvard professor, gifted researcher, and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children—sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home. She has taken the route for years, but nothing looks familiar. She is utterly lost. Medical consults reveal early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Alice slowly but inevitably loses memory and connection with reality, as told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before. Genova’s debut shows the disease progression through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so readers feel what she feels: a slowly building terror.