Book Review: Still Alice

Still Alice is a novel, not a work of nonfiction. Yet it probably offers one of the most accurate and gripping accounts of the experience of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease ever written. At first, Lisa Genova, a Harvard PhD in neuroscience, self-published her book. Her story resonated, and Still Alice took off, selling so many copies that it was bought by the prestigious publisher, Simon & Schuster. Over time, Genova would go on to win multiple awards for her work, and Still Alice would be made into a major motion picture. The Alice Howland we meet at the outset of the book is an esteemed professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard. She’s a brilliant teacher and scholar, who is routinely invited to give lectures around the country and the world. In the opening paragraphs, it is her husband, also a highly-accomplished researcher, who has misplaced his glasses and needs help finding them. Then, the first clear sign of trouble appears. Alice has been invited to give a colloquium at Stanford, and in the middle of a part of a lecture that she has given many times before, Alice cannot find the word she is looking for. She just couldn’t come up with it. She never did think of it until she was on the plane, heading back home. Alice goes on to generate all sorts of plausible explanations for this uncharacteristic lapse, just as she had for the more familiar experience of misplacing common objects, such as her phone charger. Still Alice is a book that builds and builds, as A...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Aging Alzheimer's Book Reviews Disorders Alzheimer's disease books on alzheimers early-onset Alzheimer's still alice Source Type: news