April 22, 2009

Still Alice - a story about Alzheimers

Still Alice is about the life of Alice, a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. The story concerns how the disease progresses in her, how she copes and how it affects her family and life around her. 

The story gives a very straightforward view of what it's like to progress through this illness from the viewpoint of the person affected. I thought it to be a little bit TOO much to the point and predictable, but it kept my attention nonetheless. I simply thought it could be brought about scenarios in a more subtle manner. What it did was lay things out simply and pretty much let the reader see what was happening before it happened.

While the story was good, I wonder about how the progression of the disease is portrayed. Her descent from a psychology professor who is at the top of her class to someone who mistakes her shorts for a bra is very rapid, and in simply reading it and not knowing a whole lot about dementia, seems too quick.

I would love to hear the opinions of others who have read this who know more about the disease. It's not my area of interest, or expertise, but I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a quick read to anyone.

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2 comments:

cb said...

I haven't read it or heard of it but will have a look out - it sounds intriguing enough to try!

Anonymous said...

That does sound like a very interesting read...I'll have to see if our library has it yet!

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