Still Alice – Lisa Genova, English book

Still Alice

Lisa Genova

Introduction

This novel is written by an American author Lisa Genova, who is also a specialist in neurological diseases. She opens there a topic of early-onset Alzheimer’s. I chose this book because this is really powerful story which still remains in my head. I read the book in both English and Czech and I also saw a theatre performance.

Summary of the Book

The main character of this book is Alice Howland, a fifty-year-old woman, a professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University. She is also a mother of tree amazing children (Lydia, Anna and Tom) and a loving wife to John – also a professor at Harvard University and academic.

Around Alice’s 50th birthday, she starts noticing some strange things in her behavior and mind. Alice starts struggling with remembering things, sometimes she is not able to finish her own sentence or has problems with orientation in space. After few months, she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

As the time goes, she starts struggling with daily things more and more and becomes more depended on her family’s care. However, she is also forced to end her teaching career, which is really hard for her. Her life suddenly starts falling apart.

Alice is gradually losing herself and others are losing her too. It is heartbreaking for everyone. Nobody expected this disease to come in her age. Despite the amount of medication, the symptoms are still getting worse quite quickly. She is having many memory lapses, has trouble having a normal conversation and sometimes she gets lost even in her own house. In the end of the book, she stops recognizing her own family members and also herself in the mirror. However, she still remains being the loving and unique woman she has always been. Alice loved her life and tried to enjoy it until the last moments.

Themes and Main Ideas

This book brings us to topics such as sudden change that disease like this brings, considering what is actually important in life or how much we can sacrifice for others. Moreover, we are brought in many heartwarming feelings, but also a sense of loss and cruel hopelessness. It can make us think about how fragile health and life are.

My Opinion

This book is important to me. The story is raw and very emotional, and it made me cry many times. There were some light and happy moments, but it was still heartbreaking seeing Alice being helpless, knowing that her mind and health is fading, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Honestly, I'm afraid that this will happen to someone close to me or to me one day. The helplessness and inability to control it must be terrible.

The author could perfectly describe what was going on in Alice’s mind, and it also taught me a lot about this disease. But mainly, I love the characters – especially Alice, but also her amazing husband John and her children as well. They are all smart and unique people with their own lives, now affected and connected by what happened to their loved one.

In summary, the book Still Alice stands out for opening a little-known topic about Alzheimer’s, showing the raw reality, and it also brings realization about what is actually important in life and how easily it can be lost.