Still Alice - Lisa Genova
This had tremendous personal resonance with me, and had me in tears at the end,despite reading it in a public place. We read of Alice , a brilliant Harvard academic, struck by early onset Alzheimers disease at the age of 50. Unusually, we experience things through her eyes, not those of her carer. We experience the panic of forgetting,and the tragedy of self-awareness as her symptoms progress and she becomes unable to do the things she loves..
I am almost 48,live only with my 8 year old daughter , and am beginning to experience the sort of middle aged, hormone related 'brain-fog' that I know is not unusual in any way, yet still worries me. I do the thing we all do sometimes..get somewhere without fully being aware of the journey..the 'auto-pilot syndrome', if you will ...and I occasionally mix words up when tired. all normal..yet at the back of my mind it does occur to me what WOULD happen if I were in Alice's position? And the thought of not being able to enjoy reading....
I read this book and told my daughter that if I 'lose it' in the future, she is NOT to ruin her life looking after me..
very moving...