Author Lisa Genova brings to her first novel both her personal and professional expertise in regard to Alzheimers' disease. Watching her grandmother deteriorate from this wretched illness prompted her to ponder what exactly was happening inside her grandma's brain as she became increasingly lost within herself. Genova now has a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard and using the knowledge accumulated through her profession, penned Still Alice, about a fifty-year-old Harvard professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers'. The story, told throughout from Alice's perspective, fleshes out the affects of this disease on the afflicted (namely, Alice) and her husband, children, career. It is a heartbreaking and true-ringing portrait of a life and family nearly stopped in its tracks. Filled with both clear scientific information and characters whom you can't help but love (or be disgusted by), it is a beautiful work of fiction.
BOTTOM LINE: Expect a few tears and expect to take stock of your life, newly cherishing every healthy, aware moment with which you've been blessed.
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