Still Alice - Orreadi

No cover — Lisa Genova: Still Alice (2008, Pocket Books)

English language

Published Jan. 24, 2008 by Pocket Books.

(1 review)

Still Alice is a 2007 novel by Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist and author. The novel is about a woman who suffers early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice Howland, a 50-year-old woman, is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard University and is a world-renowned linguistics expert. She is married to an equally successful husband, and they have three grown children. The disease takes hold swiftly, and it changes Alice's relationship with her family and the world. It is Genova's first novel.Genova self-published the book in 2007 with iUniverse. Beverly Beckham of The Boston Globe wrote, "After I read Still Alice I wanted to stand up and tell a train full of strangers, 'You have to get this book.'" Beckham notes that the story is told from the inside: "This is Alice Howland's story, for as long as she can tell it."The book was later acquired by Simon & Schuster and published in January …

Still Alice is a 2007 novel by Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist and author. The novel is about a woman who suffers early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice Howland, a 50-year-old woman, is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard University and is a world-renowned linguistics expert. She is married to an equally successful husband, and they have three grown children. The disease takes hold swiftly, and it changes Alice's relationship with her family and the world. It is Genova's first novel.Genova self-published the book in 2007 with iUniverse. Beverly Beckham of The Boston Globe wrote, "After I read Still Alice I wanted to stand up and tell a train full of strangers, 'You have to get this book.'" Beckham notes that the story is told from the inside: "This is Alice Howland's story, for as long as she can tell it."The book was later acquired by Simon & Schuster and published in January 2009 by Pocket Books (now Gallery Books). It was on The New York Times best seller list for more than 40 weeks. It has been sold in 30 countries and translated into more than 20 languages.

8 editions

starchy reviewed Still Alice by Lisa Genova

An important but not unproblematic book for the AD community

3 stars

Still Alice provides a believable and insightful view into what it's like to live with Alzheimer's Disease, specifically early-onset, or for someone in your family to come down with it, but it's hard to recommend without some big caveats.

First, the prose is often just... bad. Clumsy, forced metaphors, cliches everywhere, leaving nothing to the reader -- you name it. Second, the protagonist and her family are dripping with unexamined privilege, making them much harder to sympathize with even as their lives collapse. Finally, I kept spotting some uncomfortable expressions of ableism in the way things like addiction, mental illness, and intelligence were discussed, even as the book strives so hard to generate empathy for those with AD.

And yet, it's very successful, even powerful in this mission. Just don't go in expecting much more.

One other side note: the scientific consensus has changed a lot (and if anything, become …

Still Alice provides a believable and insightful view into what it's like to live with Alzheimer's Disease, specifically early-onset, or for someone in your family to come down with it, but it's hard to recommend without some big caveats.

First, the prose is often just... bad. Clumsy, forced metaphors, cliches everywhere, leaving nothing to the reader -- you name it. Second, the protagonist and her family are dripping with unexamined privilege, making them much harder to sympathize with even as their lives collapse. Finally, I kept spotting some uncomfortable expressions of ableism in the way things like addiction, mental illness, and intelligence were discussed, even as the book strives so hard to generate empathy for those with AD.

And yet, it's very successful, even powerful in this mission. Just don't go in expecting much more.

One other side note: the scientific consensus has changed a lot (and if anything, become less clear) in the years since Still Alice was published, so be sure to read the otherwise well informed discussion of AD mechanisms with a grain of salt.

Subjects

Alzheimer's disease -- Fiction
Women college teachers -- Fiction