Dissertation Book Summary

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Alice is a successful and well respected Psychology professor at Harvard University when, at the age of fifty, she is diagnosed with the early onset of Alzheimer's disease. She is married to John also a Harvard professor and they have three grown-up children.

Although the book is a work of fiction, Lisa Genova, makes all her characters believable and the reader is soon absorbed within Alice's story. Each chapter is headed with the month and the year thus creating a sort of timeline which plots how Alice, her family and her friends deal with this disease. The narrative describes how she reacts to being told she has Alzheimer's and how she deals with the problem in a series of 'snapshots' not only how those around her deal with it but the story also delves into the mind of Alice and her thought process. It illustrates her logic and how it becomes disorientated as her condition worsens. One poignant moment in the book tells how, after a period of just over a year dealing with her condition, she delivers a speech to an audience of very distinguished people including Nobel Prize winners in the field of psychology. Also in the audience is her husband John and her three children. She describes just how it feels to be an Alzheimer's victim and how she has become disorientated and that she is "losing her yesterdays".  Miss Genova captures, in this speech, the emotions, suffering and anguish of an Alzheimer's sufferer.

The author also use phrases throughout her narrative which creates pictures for the reader e.g. 'Tim Burton shadows'. For anyone who has seen any of 'Burton's' work shall immediately recognise what she is describing.

At the rear of the book there is a section of Discussion Questions which helps the reader identify certain points mentioned in the narrative. It questions Alice's feelings towards her family and friends, how does she really accept the fact that she has Alzheimer's. Questions are also asked about her husband's motives about want to move to New York.

The person who reads the book may have already had some queries referring to certain passages or incidents in the book. This section may support their findings or spot some others. A possible reason this section of the book has been included is that many Alzheimer's caregivers and family members may well get together and discuss the book and relate it to their charge or relative. To add such a chapter is a clever inclusion for this book as it can create dialogue between others and perhaps identify parts that they may have missed when reading the book.

Another section of the book has an interview with the author in which she answers questions about the book, what inspired her to write the book and the other projects she is working on at the moment.

Lisa Genova, is a first time novelist and has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University and is an online writer for the National Alzheimer's Association.