Book Review: Still Alice by Lisa Genova

  

Still Alice is a work of fiction. The characters in the book are fictitious. Yet, this book has a very realistic feel, and it deals with a very real problem afflicting tens of millions of people worldwide. 

This book deals with dementia, generally. More specifically, the main character, Alice, develops Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease. She is an incredibly intelligent and accomplished woman who has to endure the indignity and horrors of watching her cognitive functions measurably decline in a short period of time.

The author, Lisa Genova, does an incredible job of writing the seeming slow drip of mental decline due to Alice's disease on a virtual day-by-day basis. This is not a horror novel, yet it is terrifying in many respects, especially since I personally have reached the age in which the fictional Alice is diagnosed with this disease. This novel also is not like a Shakespearean tragedy, yet it has a very sad tone and feel overall. We are forced to watch a brilliant woman in a decline which seems slow at first, as we notice some slips which seem relatively minor at first, but which cumulatively go incredibly fast, when the decline becomes impossible to notice in just over one year's time. 

Everything in this book feels very realistic. Granted, this is fiction. But what is scary is the very real feel of this work, and of the damage that Alzheimer's can do. Alice, as the book title suggests, is still the same woman, yet she is not. It changes her, in terms of both mental capacity and confidence. The people around her - and she has a beautiful family, truly having lived a successful and fulfilled life - have to adapt to these new realities. In some cases, they have to begin to worry that they themselves might prove to be vulnerable to the disease, since it is genetic and can be passed down from generation to generation. 

Scary stuff.

We also see that the people in the book are not flawless. They do things and make decisions that we might not understand or agree with. At times they are a bit too quick to judge, or focus a bit too much on their own interests for our tastes. Yet, that feels real, too. They are not overly noble, nor are they truly heroic or villainous. In the end, what helps to make this book feel valid and genuine is just how grounded in reality everything and everyone is. That helped to add to the shock value of a disease suddenly rocking not just the person directly afflicted by it, but an entire family, and even the people around Alice.

Not a fun or happy book. But an important one nevertheless, which might help you to better appreciate some of the little things which we take for granted. Because dementia is very real. My girlfriend works in the dementia win of a retirement home, and she has seen many of the things which are addressed in this book. 

A solid read. Highly recommended.