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