Still Alice

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is the account of a woman's discovery that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease and her story as her health and mental ability declines.

Lisa Genova, a Ph.D. in neuroscience who writes extensively about Alzheimer’s, has written a beautiful story, Still Alice, about a woman, Alice,  in her early 50s who learns she has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Somewhat ironically, Alice lives by words and how the brain works or doesn’t: she is a professor at Harvard in cognitive psychology and presents at a conferences around the world annually. The novel details how Alice discovers the disease, how she deals with telling her family and, most difficult, her colleagues, and how she pares down her daily activities to accommodate her diagnosis and increasing limitations.


Through the book Alice finds it increasingly difficult to imagine who she is without her ability to hold down a job or go for a run. When she starts not to recognize her children – or calls her daughter by her long-dead mother’s name – she puts a plan of action in place. She gives herself mental tests on a daily basis, and she decides that when she can no longer answer these fairly straightforward questions, she will pull her own plug.


Although this is a extremely sad topic about a disease with no cure, it was a lovely book to read and to once again make me appreciate how lucky I am to have good health, family and friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the topic or to book clubs as there are many issues worthy of discussion.