Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is one of my all time favourite books.  It's the book that I suggest to readers most often.  Still Alice is the story of a Harvard professor, Alice that is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  What I love about this book the most is that the story is written from Alice's perspective.  No one knows exactly what it feels like to live with Alzheimer’s but Genova does an outstanding job of writing an empathetic story.  Lisa Genova obtained a Ph. D. in neuroscience from Harvard University in 1998 so she clearly knows what she's writing about.

When I saw that Genova had a new book, Inside the O'Briens, coming out in April 2015 I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.  But I approached reading the novel with a bit of hesitation.  I loved Still Alice so much and I didn't know that Genova could live up to the pedestal that I had placed her on.  

Inside the O'Briens is the story of a police officer named Joe.  He's an Irish Catholic living in Boston.  He takes great pride in his beautiful city and protects it by serving on the Boston Police Department.  Joe also takes great pride in his wife, Rosie, and their four children.  But at age 44 he doesn't seem to be able to do his police work as well as he used; he's getting clumsy; making mistakes.  Joe's friends think he might be drinking a bit too much.  After a visit to the doctor it's not long before Joe receives his diagnosis - Huntington's disease.  Genova does an outstanding job of providing a compassionate story about Joe's life after diagnosis.  Sadly, Huntington's disease is a genetic disorder and the fear is that the disease has passed on to his four children.  The kids can undergo genetic testing and find out if they're gene positive or not.  Would knowing if they’re positive change the way they live their lives?  They're all going to die sometime; do they need to know how and when?  

Genova continues to educate readers on neurological diseases and she does so with a sympathetic heart.  Now that I'm finished Inside the O'Briens I'm happy to say Lisa Genova remains firmly in place on the pedestal that I've put her on.  

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy to review.