The Last Ocean

Starred review from May 6, 2019
Gerrard, coauthor with Sean French of the thrillers published under the pseudonym Nicci French, takes on dementia in this vivid combination of memoir and investigative journalism. Moved to write about the condition by her father’s decline into dementia, she interweaves her memories of him with the stories of other affected people—family members and caregivers as well as patients, and insights from doctors and researchers. The book traces the arc of the condition, from early chapters on facing up to and diagnosing it in its many forms—Alzheimer’s being just the best-known—to a section on optimizing quality of life, to a discussion of care options in the advanced stages. Yes, she acknowledges, dementia is a terminal condition, the “sniper in the garden” and a “sneaky intruder in the house,” but there are ways to live with it, and even live well. The arts, in particular, “support longer lives better lived,” as Gerrard finds at the hospitals and homes now incorporating them. She, herself, after her father’s death, launched John’s Campaign to gain caregivers the right to stay with dementia patients in the hospital, just as parents do with their children. With dementia now afflicting one in six people over 80, Gerrard’s informative and thought-provoking book is pertinent to all. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary.

June 15, 2019
Memoir meets journalistic activism in this examination of dementia as an epidemic in an era of greater longevity. Though award-winning British journalist Gerrard has published novels under her own name (The Twilight Hour, 2014, etc.), she has reached a wider readership as half of the husband-and-wife duo who write a mystery series as Nicci French. Fans and newcomers alike will find this memoir revelatory and moving, as the author recounts her experience with her late father's dementia, which inspired her to co-found the advocacy group John's Campaign. "To explore dementia's meaning and its excruciating losses," she writes, "is to think about how far we as a society and as individuals are responsible for the suffering of others: what we owe each other, what we care about, what matters in the world we all share. Who matters." The most personal parts of her inquiry carry both an emotional and a philosophical charge. As more people live longer, more will suffer from dementia, a disease that affects not only the patient, but friends and families, the medical profession, the economy, and society as a whole. She reaches beyond her own experience for interviews with others facing similar challenges. Though presenting each as a continuous case history, she weaves multiple threads throughout the narrative, along with expert testimony and statistical support. Some readers may find it difficult to keep the specifics straight as Gerrard switches among families dealing with the disease, but the range of experiences and perspectives remains illuminating. The more the author seems like a journalistic observer, taking notes from the sidelines, the flatter the tone, though the best writing is indelible: "When did my father's dementia begin? We don't know. We'll never be able to put a finger on the danger spot: there. Like fog that streaks up stealthily, imperceptibly, until the foghorn booms and suddenly there are dark shapes looming at you out of shrouded darkness--you think you'll notice it, but often you don't. Then you can't." A beacon of a book amid a sea of darkness.

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Starred review from August 1, 2019
Who are we if our memories are lost? As Gerrard ponders her father's final years and final battles with dementia, she tries to describe this journey through the loss and the costs of this degenerative disease from the perspectives of both the patient and caregiver. The author, who collaborates with her husband to write the popular Nicci French mysteries, also gives voice to dementia patients who are often silenced. She talks to others who have been touched by the disease, sharing their stories of diagnosis, shame, hidden symptoms, and attempts at normality as she recalls her own father's struggles. Gerrard shares the worries about age-related forgetfulness and how it may or may not proceed dementia. She describes dementia as a slow-growing condition that gradually robs patients of their pasts, while also sharing hopeful moments when caregivers connect with their loved ones through music and the arts. Gerrard has become an advocate, urging hospitals and nursing facilities to allow full access to caregivers of dementia patients, knowing that their presence brings much-needed comfort. This is a beautifully written, heartfelt look at aging, disease, and death that will both comfort and inspire readers who are living through or fearing such passages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 23, 2019

Journalist and novelist (as Nicci French with Sean French) Gerrard describes how for ten years, her father, John, lived "mildly, sweetly, uncomplainingly" with dementia, though still "gradually disappearing, memories falling away, words going, recognition fading." Then, after a stay in the hospital for a physical problem, with his family able to be there only during strictly enforced visiting hours and hospital staff too overworked and poorly trained to help much, John came home "a ghost of himself, inarticulate, lost." In a few months, he was dead. Gerrard went on to learn about how other people with dementia were cared for and found a troubling lack of compassion in hospitals and nursing homes. In 2014, she cofounded John's Campaign UK, which advocates for the right of family members and other caregivers to stay with loved ones who are hospitalized for dementia. According to Gerrard, around 47 million people live with dementia throughout the world. Someone develops the disease every three seconds. They are our mothers, fathers, spouses, and friends. One day, they may well be us. VERDICT Among the many recent books on the subject of dementia, this is one is particularly moving, beautifully told, and an important addition to memoir and consumer health collections. [See Prepub Alert, 2/11/19.]--Marcia G. Welsh, Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 23, 2019

Coauthor of the UK best-selling Nicci French thrillers, Gerrard is also a journalist who set out to examine the experience of dementia and campaign for more compassionate treatment after her father's illness. Her writing on the subject won the 2016 Orwell Prize for Journalism.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.