I liked that she was independent and followed what she wanted.

Lydia was my favorite (only dampened when I found out who plays her in the movie). I thought it was really beautiful and showed a wide range of reactions. Lydia didn’t want to get tested but Anna wanted to overcome something she might pass on. John wanted to ignore her and her daughters cared for her. I thought the ways her family reacted were representative of caregiver testimonial’s I’ve read. It was very pointed when John narrated and I’m glad it was thrown in because I’m not sure the reader could have processed what his voice gave us through Alice’s eyes.įrom what I’ve read, Alice’s path through Alzheimer’s is not atypical but it’s hard to say what’s ‘normal’ or ‘standard’ in such a disease. She’s not sitting there laughing to herself for no reason, she’s giggling at the geese and the silly things they’re doing. It also helped me sympathize with Alice and what she was going through rather than looking at someone who’s confused and acting irrational and wondering why they’re doing what they are. It helped the reader feel the same confusion when Alice would forget someone’s name or that she had said something or what she was looking for.

I thought it was interesting to choose Alice as a narrator. Just reading the description, I knew this book wasn’t going to end well. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life–and her relationship with her family and the world–forever. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build.

Lisa genova new book 2023