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Still Alice

Lisa Genova

Start date: June 1, 2017

Finish date: June 30, 2017

Discussion: Monthly Bonus Reads

Why we're reading this: June Bonus Read- Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month

Still Alice by Lisa Genova …more
[close] June Bonus Read- Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

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What Members Thought

May 10, 2012 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books

A few years ago, the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference was in Seattle and I had a chance to attend (I was a high school librarian before retirement). Lisa Genova spoke at the conference and it was fascinating to hear her knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease and encouraging to hear about some of the progress being made toward fighting the condition. I had read the book before the conference and it was a 5 star read for me, but I did not review it at the time, so the details are not ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2017 Jeanne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-women, psychology, read-2017

Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, is a quick read, but surprisingly insightful about the experiences of people with Alzheimer's Disease – and their partners, families, caregivers, and co-workers.

Told from Alice's point of view (she's a psychology professor at Harvard), Still Alice offers a fresh perspective of this disease. Alice's behavior often makes sense when told this way – although her family and coworkers still have a difficult time understanding her behavior. Genova presents Alice as a woman Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, is a quick read, but surprisingly insightful about the experiences of people with Alzheimer's Disease – and their partners, families, caregivers, and co-workers.

Told from Alice's point of view (she's a psychology professor at Harvard), Still Alice offers a fresh perspective of this disease. Alice's behavior often makes sense when told this way – although her family and coworkers still have a difficult time understanding her behavior. Genova presents Alice as a woman who had and continues to have strengths even during her illness. She is not a hollow shell, although people often talk about her in her presence, as though she is a nonperson, even when she was still competent to make her own decisions. Her family members were not perfect, but they often have good intentions. In fact, in some cases, her diagnosis is a blessing in disguise, allowing one relationship to deepen and heal.

Because Still Alice followed Alice over the first two years of her illness, we can see the variability of the disease – and its rapid progression. We can also recognize the difficulties some people have with the disease, their struggles in responding to her symptomatic behaviors, and strategies for handling symptoms and problems more effectively.

In some ways Genova's task is unusually easy with Alice. Alice pays attention to the lapses she has, takes them seriously, and asks for a diagnosis fairly early. Alice's PCP takes her concerns seriously and easily excludes the other potential causes of memory problems in 50-year-olds – normal lapses, poor sleep hygiene, substance abuse, stress, menopause, strokes, tumors, AIDS, etc. – and makes a referral to a neurologist and neuropsychologist at their first discussion of problems, rather than six months later. Despite few errors, Alice is diagnosed, correctly as it turns out, with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease. This gives Still Alice a more rapid and clear path than it would have if it followed a more typical person's long and arduous journey before finally receiving a diagnosis.

Genova has a PhD in neuropsychology from Harvard, so her occasional misses surprised me. Alice's to do list months before being first diagnosed was surprisingly short for someone at her stage in her career: "Cognition class, lunch seminar, Dan’s paper, Eric, Birthday dinner" (p. 29).
Perhaps this was just her acute to do list, but mine is much longer and more complicated. At one point early in the progression of the disease Alice referred to her medications as "antioxidant vitamins and aspirin, a statin, and two neurotransmitter drugs” (p. 105). It seems that Alice would never have described her medications as "neurotransmitter drugs," even when she was trying to explain her diagnosis and treatment to her daughter.

Still, Genova offered a good perspective on the process of diagnosis – MRI only to rule out a stroke or tumors – and focused on elegant neuropsychological assessments. Alice's repeated visits for neuropsychological testing allowed us to see the importance of such testing and understand her progressive loss of new information – and older information.

In her author's interview, Genova identified Oliver Sacks as one of her favorite writers. Genova's descriptions of neurological disorders are less compelling than Sacks', who often took philosophical flights with his descriptions. Genova, though, provides a good and thorough strength-based approach to this disease. This is a real gift to the Alzheimer's community: patients, families, caregivers, health-care providers.

While I hope that I have no reason to pass this book along, it will be at my fingertips – right next to the neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's memoir, My Stroke of Insight, which described Taylor's experience of and recovery from a stroke. Both books can help patients and families through a confusing time. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2013 Carmen Blankenship rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-authors

Lisa Genova is in my top 5 favorite authors. I am so enamored with her writing that I don't even get angry that it takes a year or more between books. She is just that good and that thorough. I know every page is worth the wait.

Of course, I didnt realize how much I adored her writing when I firsted picked up Still Alice from a the Library. I remember cracking the spine open while I was settling in for my 1.5 hour commute to work. My eyes layed on the first page and then next minute I was at wor ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 19, 2013 Mom2triplets04 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2014-favorites, 1-000-book-challenge, one-sitting, audio-listened, memory-loss

Another book I cried while reading. It's about a woman who loses her memory at age 50. She is telling the story and how she little by little forgets everything. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2015 Judy Lindow rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, adult-non-fiction

Whew, that was exhausting! It's an important work, because it's told from the point of view of an Alzheimer's patient. Most books on the subject are told by and/or to support caregivers. This is understandable because the people living with Alzheimer's are often not diagnosed easily, loosing their language skills, and not always able to understand and communicate the progress of the disease reliably.

From what I've read and my experiences with people with dementia (alzheimer's is a type of demen ...more

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