Author: Lisa Genova
ISBN: 978-1-7411-4906-1
RRP: $19.99
Still Alice was originally published by Simon & Schuster in 2009. It has now been re-released with a new cover in conjunction with the major motion picture, starring Julianne Moore, released on January 29th.
I hadn’t heard of this one before but the premise certainly grabbed my attention. Still Alice is the story of early onset Alzheimers sufferer Alice Howland and is told in the third person from her perspective.
Alzheimers is not going to be pleasant for anyone, there is no preferred age or profession, but I found that this story touched me profoundly because of Alice’s age and profession.
Alice Howland is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard, a world-renowned linguistics expert and fifty years old. This is a brilliant mind, a challenged mind and certainly an exercised mind but Alzheimers didn’t care and took it anyway. It started with small moments of forgetfulness or disorientation, attributed to being overstressed, menopausal and a normal part of the aging process. The diagnosis is not easy to swallow, for Alice or her husband.
Still Alice takes us from the early signs through to the late stages of the disease. From a time when Alice was still lecturing and a respected member of her field, needing only to leave herself lots of extra notes and reminders through to her no longer being able to work and needing more and more care.
At one of her earliest appointments the neurologist tells Alice she is an unreliable source of information about what’s going on and yet it is her that tells her story, and she tells it well. Touching, heartbreaking and sympathetic Alice is a character you can’t help but feel for. She was at the peak of her career with plans ahead of her and they were all well and truly taken away from her, one slowly atrophying neuron at a time.
Language is one of the touchstones of Alice’s career, her public speaking has always been exemplary and extensive travel one of the highlights of her calendar so I found it to be doubly tragic that language was one of the first areas to let her down. An increase in disorientation made solo travel inadvisable and the highly independent Alice is suddenly at the mercy of her husband’s busy schedule.
Still Alice takes us through the stages of grief as well as the disease, we are party to the denial, the anger, the bargaining, the prayers and ultimately the acceptance.
The book is fiction but Genova certainly did her homework and worked hard to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s and give a voice to its sufferers.
Alice fights to retain her sense of self and to let everyone know that she is still here, she is still useful and she still has a voice. Her story illustrates the lack of support for early onset sufferers and the stigma felt by them. Alzheimers isn’t necessarily life threatening so as an early onset sufferer Alice could have 30 or 40 years to live with this disease, how is a woman of her independence and reputation going to cope as she slowly loses herself, and can see herself getting lost. She puts in place her own contingency plans with the hope that she can follow them through before it’s too late.
Alice’s family are all career driven and for the most part intellectually focused. John is a biologist dedicated to his work at Harvard, son Tom is a surgeon, daughter Anna is a lawyer and so is her husband. Lydia, the baby of the family, chose to pursue an acting career instead of going to college and her relationship with her mother has always been fractious to say the least. Alice wanted her to go to college and study for a backup plan but Lydia refused. In all the changes faced due to Alice’s disease the most rewarding is the change in her relationship with Lydia.
Still Alice is haunting, it’s poignant and it certainly shines a spotlight on early onset Alzheimer’s. It raises valid questions and issues that we should all keep in mind when dealing with sufferers. I am interested to watch the movie and see how the extremely talented Moore brings Alice to life.
At times Still Alice is a little hard to follow and connect with but I think that’s all part of getting inside of Alice’s head, it is her disconnection that we are feeling. A promising debut which leaves me wondering about what will be next from Genova.
A selection of our lucky readers will be reading Still Alice as part of the Beauty and Lace Book Club so I will be interested to see what they have to say about the book.
Please be advised that there may be spoilers contained in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I am halfway through this book, naturally I know of Demintia and Alzheimers but no one in my family has ever had this hideous disease, I am finding some parts of the book quite distressing, I just can’t imagine that some one that educated can succumb to this awful disease I think that is why I find this book upsetting as this disease can affect poor rich educated any body I will finish this book as I need to know what John and the family do, when Alice went to check out the care facility I burst into tears I just can’t imagine myself doing this I would put my head in the sand and hoped it would go away I will post again when I finish the book I love reading but this is one book I have to keep walking away from
I found this book to be a massive eye opener, as much as I have heard of this disease, not actually coming in contact with anyone who had or has it made me realise how little I actually knew or what effects it has on the person and people around them.
The writing in this book is so detailed and full of emotion, really makes you feel as if you are inside her mind going through the roller coaster ride and frustrations that she is experiencing.
Very heart wrenching and quite sad, but I really enjoyed reading it to feel like I know more about this horrid disease and knowing that I would be more understanding and compassionate to those I encounter through life who are going through it.
thankyou for this empowering book to read
It has taken me a couple of days to decide how to put my thoughts down after reading Still Alice and I am still not sure what to say. I feel in love with the story and Alice, fell out of love with John and was a little annoyed at times with their children. Having said that, the story is so real and honest and raw that you are compelled to try to understand each individual’s role. Like many others there is Alzheimer’s in my family and I wish I had a better understanding earlier. Well researched, written and educational. Will I read again? Definitely. Being emotional about this story I say “thank you”.
Still Alice is an absolutely wonderful and beautiful book. I loved every part of it. Lisa Genova has done an incredible job in handling such a difficult subject so caringly and lovingly with such honesty. Her research is impeccable and her writing brilliant.
My Mum had Alzheimer’s Disease but she was over 80 when it took over. I can only imagine the horror for Alice, a brilliant mind, as well as her entire family, when she realised something was wrong and was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers at the age of 50. Alice revelled in public speaking, which she did brilliantly and she loved teaching. These were stripped from her so much sooner than they should have been due to the effects of the disease.
“Everything she did and loved, everything she was, required language.” She’d rather die than lose her mind. Who was she if she wasn’t a Harvard psychology professor?
The way the story unfolds is so beautifully handled and we really know the rest of Alice’s family and can understand them all. I loved the way the relationship between Alice and her younger child, Lydia, developed. The way her children were prepared to organise their lives so they could support their mother was beautifully and realistically handled. I could well understand the difficulty Alice’s husband, John, had in coming to terms with the situation. John is losing his wife, watching her become unrecognisable in front of him and he doesn’t cope particularly well. I can’t possibly condemn him for not wanting to be confronted with a stranger who used to be someone he loved so much.
Alice’s passion for understanding how language works inspired Dan, her last student, and others. The ability to use language was leaving her.
The book was sad but not depressing and incredibly emotional. I loved every part of it and felt that Lisa Genova finished it perfectly. It will stay as one of my favourite books of all time and I am incredibly grateful and thankful to Beauty and Lace and Simon and Schuster UK for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful novel.
Upon finishing this book I felt grateful for the opportunity to of read it.
I still think about the effect it had on her family quite often after reading. Heartfelt and truly a page turner, you couldn’t help but keep reading.
Well written and great in depth information about this dreadful disease.
To see her lose her lifestyle and family before her eyes was heartbreaking. The husband John understandably took time to come to terms with his wifes disease and was very well his way of dealing with this whole new being.
So emotional and heartwrenching, I couldn’t put it down.
Im hoping my mother doesn’t end up on this path also as she has some signs..Thank you, a really good book to read, pulls at the heartstrings.
What a wonderful, heart-wrenching book. A wonderful portrayal of a brilliant woman with a spectacular career she adores and the heart-wrenching downhill spiral into a unforgiving disease. I am so glad this was written through Alice’s eyes and the struggle she had to adjust to what she knew was her hardest fight she ever had to do.
The difference in the way family and friends deal with mental illness such as Alzheimer’s Disease is as confronting to the reader as to the people involved. I would have disliked John if I did not come into contact with family and friends of Alzeimer’s sufferers in my job and went through my Mother’s terminal Brain Tumours. Everyone deals with this in their own way. John’s way was to distance himself while Alice had no choice but to deal head on with what was going on with her. Alice’s children did their best to help.
I really liked how the Euthenasia Issue was brought into play and the way Alice decided when she was unable to answer 5 simple questions about her life, loved ones and what was dearest to her, she would do this and the steps she went to, to make sure she would still be able to complete the plan.
I smiled, laughed and cried many times while reading this book.
Lisa Genova has certainly done a lot of research into this disease and the effects on the sufferer and those around her, from family, friends and workmates.
Alzheimer’s Disease is unforgiving not just to the sufferer but to everyone around them.
I have already passed my copy onto a friend and have recommended this book to many people.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this, it certainly has opened my eyes a lot and has made me a lot more tolerant with the patients at my work. Cheers.
Second Post Review
Well I have finished the book and now my husband is reading so disturbing how Alice went downhill so fast I guess all family’s deal with this hideous disease differently in my heart I think John was trying his best and maybe was in denial, as I know I would be from reading this book I will be keeping a closer eye on my elderly mum Thanks for chosing me to review this book
Still Alice, a touching story of a woman’s struggle through a frightening diagnosis with Alzheimers was a difficult read for me as i struggled to connect initially with Alice’s character and her family situation. i think more depth could have been gained by giving us the husbands point of view also. Saying that, I do acknowledge the powerful nature of this story and the important messages that lie therein.
Having recently read ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ – Emma Healey with follows a similar theme, I was interested to read ‘Still Alice’ and find another perspective on the emotional trauma portrayed by the protagonist.
The book is well written without overbearing the reader with complicated language and packs a powerful emotional punch for the reader. Although a slow burner, i would recommend to those interested in the subject. Looking forward to seeing the film adaptation shortly.
Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. It was a hard read, because it was terrific- I kept forgetting it was just a novel and because I am a fellow psychologist, it was just difficult to distance myself at times from the main character. There is honesty in the feelings expressed and the author has really done her homework. I am looking forward to spending some time deconstructing the book in more depth in my blog.
Thank you for the opportunity to review Still Alice. I have just finished reading it, and found it be very well written although a bit difficult to follow in some areas.
The book is about a middle age lady Alice who shows early signs of Alzheimer’s and the journey she encounters as the disease progresses. It was a deeply sad and emotional book and I found myself following Alice’s journey intently as a close family member o mine also has Alzheimer’s.
I found the characters in the book very likeable, except for her husband John. I found him selfish, unsupportive and arrogant. This is happening to Alice not to himself and I wish he was there for her more. As the disease slowly wrecks havoc in Alice’s life, its really to good to read that she fights its as best she could, with the support of her children and her blackberry.
I think its a bold move of alice to be able to plan when her life ends but things don’t go to plan. I cound relate to that bit as no one wants to live in a world that doesn’t exist.
It is absolutely heartbreaking to think there is no cure as yet, but hopefully this book and movie can help raise awareness and funds to find a way to prevent this terrible disease from taking away precious memories for those who are affected by it.
I haven’t seen the movie nor heard of it until this book review, so its now on my to do list. I will also keep an eye out for any other books written by Lisa Genova as she is an excellent author.