Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Hey everyone...

So here is review number two. Yesterday, I finished Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Before continuing, I,would like to say that this book has a movie adaptation that I would strongly recommend. Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her portrayal of Alice and it really was well deserved.

Anyway, the book... Still Alice tells the story of fifty-one year old Alice, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Proteins build up in the brain to form structures called 'plaques' and 'tangles'. This leads to the loss of connections between nerve cells, and eventually to the death of nerve cells and loss of brain tissue. People with Alzheimer's also have a shortage of some important chemicals in their brain that help to transmit important signals and messages around the brain. A shortage means that the signals are not transmitted as effectively. Before reading this book, I knew very little about Alzheimer's and, although this book does not contain excessive factual information (I do not like it when books do contain a lot), I did learn a lot about Alzheimer's through the eyes of Alice, who was suffering with it. Alzheimer's is a terminal illness that breaks down the neurones in the brain that deal with memory.

However, this is not a book about Alzheimer's. It is not overly factual or dry and it does not make you feel pitiful in a negative way. This is a book about Alice and her struggle with the disease. She is a Harvard professor of psychology and she has a husband and three children, Anna, Tom and Lydia. Narrated through her eyes, it is a heart-breaking and beautifully told story of how her life unravels at the hands of this terrible disease. 

Why do I like this book?

This book is heartbreaking but in a way that made me think. Alice was very intelligent and I myself am very nerdy and love to learn new things. Lisa Genova is able to show, very realistically and sympathetically how this terrible illness is causing her to forget everything that she has learnt and, even more terribly, the faces of everyone she loved. Can you imagine waking up and not knowing who your family were? Their faces were still somewhere in your head but you couldn't access them because your neurones had been destroyed.

I think Lisa Genova makes this living with this disease which, thankfully, everyone does not have to do, relatable to everyone who reads it. The author really develops the relationships between the husband and wife and mother and children to show how the disease attacks all parts of Alice's life.

Issues discussed in this book

Obviously, Alzheimer's is one of the issues discussed. To me, before reading Still Alice, Alzheimer's meant very little to me and I knew very little about it. I knew that it was a terminal disease but I had very little knowledge of the effect it had on peoples' lives. It meant the same to me as Parkinson's or Motor Neurone Disease. I could name a few people who had these diseases but I didn't really know anything about them. When someone says, think of a terminal illness, I think of cancer. It is a much bigger issue in my family and therefore, it mattered a lot more to me. After watching the Theory of Everything, I understood the severity of Motor Neurone Disease to a much greater extent. But I think that that a problem. I was learning about these illnesses from a film, instead of being given information about them from my school or from the world in general. Everyone I know, I believe  could name a form of cancer but not everyone could tell me what these other terminal illnesses could do, or even what they are. Let's focus on Alzheimer's. I do believe awareness should be raised about these diseases, to let people know more about them and to understand the severity of what many people have to face. Because I've studied in a good school and I have had a good education and I have never heard Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or even Motor Neurone Disease mentioned in any of my lessons and that is a bad thing. (I've included these three because these I have now researched a bit more but there are lots more.) How can we expect things to change without teaching people about them? 

Recommendations

There are two books that I recommend if you enjoy reading Still Alice. One is This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl and her parents. This book is the story of a girl who suffers from cancer. She died but her parents published her diary of her life, living with it. It is an amazing story and what I love about it is that although it is about cancer, it isn't a cancer book.

And the second book is Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. For those who do not know, Black Beauty is a horse and this book is the story of his life. Let me explain. I think this book is so sweet, for a start but also, through the eyes of Black Beauty, a horse, he accepts all that happens in his life, all the bad owners and the horrible things that happen and I think it is very similar to how Alice accepted what was going to happen in her life.

Okay...well that's it for this post. I am now reading Mercy by Jodi Picoult so that will be my next review. I might do an overall for Jodi Picoult as well because I love her books. I hope this post was interesting and you enjoyed it. Below are the links to buy all the books and also a link I found in the back of Still Alice to donate money to raise awareness for Alzheimer's.

BUY STILL ALICE ON AMAZON

BUY BLACK BEAUTY ON AMAZON

BUY THIS STAR WON'T GO OUT ON AMAZON

DONATE MONEY TO RAISE AWARENESS 

Click on the CALL TO ACTION- Alzheimer's button and donate money.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE HERE 

Be Awesome

Clare