Still Alice

October 20, 2008
Neuroscientist and debut novelist Genova mines years of experience in her field to craft a realistic portrait of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice Howland has a career not unlike Genova's—she's an esteemed psychology professor at Harvard, living a comfortable life in Cambridge with her husband, John, arguing about the usual (making quality time together, their daughter's move to L.A.) when the first symptoms of Alzheimer's begin to emerge. First, Alice can't find her Blackberry, then she becomes hopelessly disoriented in her own town. Alice is shocked to be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's (she had suspected a brain tumor or menopause), after which her life begins steadily to unravel. She loses track of rooms in her home, resigns from Harvard and eventually cannot recognize her own children. The brutal facts of Alzheimer's are heartbreaking, and it's impossible not to feel for Alice and her loved ones, but Genova's prose style is clumsy and her dialogue heavy-handed. This novel will appeal to those dealing with the disease and may prove helpful, but beyond the heartbreaking record of illness there's little here to remember.

In Lisa Genova's novel, a professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard is at the height of her career when she begins to have moments of disorientation. The obvious explanation that she is suffering from symptoms of menopause doesn't satisfy Alice as both her condition and a sense of foreboding increase until she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The author reads her intense account of the rapid progression of the disease. She does not have the same level of skill as a narrator that she does as a writer. Nonetheless, she communicates the growing sense of detachment and confusion that Alice feels and brings the listener into the realm of Alice's narrowing existence. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine