Still Alice by Lisa Genova

5 stars.

I couldn't put this book down, to the point where I would fall asleep reading it into the wee hours of the night.  While asleep, I even dreamt I myself experienced Alzheimer's, so much was I engrossed in this book and in Alice, the protagonist of the story, who develops early onset Alzheimer's.  Genova does an excellent job of relaying what it would feel like to lose one's mind to this degenerative disease.  Rich in writing, Genova draws us into the life of Alice, her husband John, and their 3 grown children Anna, Lydia & Tom.  Written from Alice's perspective, we see how she and her family cope with this disease that erases the person Alice once was.  One of the lines that broke my heart in the book was when Alice admits to her husband how she misses herself, to which he replies, "me too".  Alice, a Havard professor, diagnosed with Alzheimer's, chooses to continue to teach until the end of her semester, aware that there would be some repercussions, but unaware of the extent of them.  Indeed toward the end of her career, her once close colleagues have a hard time continuing their friendship with her and become distant.  Sadly, society does not deal well with diseases affecting the intellect, we are much better at dealing with physical degenerative diseases such as cancer it seems.  Alice finally resigns from her position.  She understandably contemplates suicide as she continues to lose herself to this incurable disease robbing her of everything in which she once prided herself.

Genova underwent many interviews and much research in order to relay such an accurate portrait of an Alzheimer's victim.