Debbie's Reviews > Still Alice

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

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1998703
's review
Feb 21, 09

Read in February, 2009

Fifty year old Alice Howland, a world-renowned expert in linguistics and a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Still Alice is the story of the unraveling of Alice's life as her disease progresses.

I started out not enjoying this book. The author's main character wasn't very likeable – she seemed too focused on how smart she was and how important and prestigious her job was, but I was quickly won over. Lisa Genova wrote from Alice's perspective so the reader joins in the fear, disorientation, and confusion that come with the progression of Alzheimer's. Alice's relationships with her family and their varying responses to Alice's decline are extremely believable, and the most touching parts of the book are the evolution of Alice's relationships with her husband and children as her disease progresses.

Still Alice is a fantastic book that provides an incredible window into the progression of Alzheimer's disease and is both terrifying and heart-rending. Warning - it will make you question all your middle-age moments of forgetfulness

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Comments (showing 1-4 of 4) (4 new)

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Sissy I absolutely agree Debbie...what drew me to this book in the 1st place was the fact that at 53 I think I'm too young to forget things or have difficulty finding the right word...I decided not to identify with Alice just yet.


Kelly if you liked Still Alice, you may like my new book The Bird House. Library Journal called it a "a great title for book clubs and fans of 'Still Alice.' "


Christina Debbie, I agree with you. I read the German version of this book and I only started really liking it at page 104, when her disease went into a worse state. I didn't like the Alice in the beginning either.


Wendylicious I absolutely agree, she seemed to feel that her Alzheimer's was a bigger tragedy because of her education.


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