STILL ALICE
by Lisa Genova
Contemporary Fiction
Premise
Brilliant psycholinguistics professor develops early-onset Alzheimers disease.
Cover
Eyecatching blue butterfly-on-white-background design; is relevant to content.
What Works
This wonderful, heartbreaking novel is an astonishingly quick read. Partly because the reader urgently wants to know what happens next despite the clarity with which Alice goes downhill, partly because of the author's skill at deciding what was necessary for the story and paring everything else away. Every scene depicts something significant about how the heroine figures out something is wrong and deals with it, and every scene is free of padding. What remains is an amazing tale about the way Alice comes to terms with what is happening to her, and how those around her - spouse, children, friends, colleagues - react.
As in real life when a devastating diagnosis rips calm, orderly lives apart, not everyone demonstrates patience or support. Whether due to embarrassment, fear of own mortality, or personal grief, there are those who choose to withdraw so as not to deal with the stricken person, abandoning them to lonliness on top of all the other difficutlies enfolding their life. Alice's insistence on seeing herself as a person who happens to have Alzheimers, rather than primarily an Alzheimers patient, is a lesson readers would be able to apply to many other situations when interacting with people trying to wrest control of their lives back from intrusive and lethal companions.
What Doesn't
The only thing Apprentice Writer can think of is the real possibility that readers will cheat themselves of this book due to fear of upsetting subject matter. AW knows whereof she speaks; she would not have read this had it not been chosen by her book club. It is not a pretty thought to imagine not recognizing one's loved ones, not being competent to do one's job, not being able to carry out fundamental personal grooming. Trying to avoid such uncomfortable reality will do nothing to keep it away, however, if that is what is written in one's genetic future. What might help, on the other hand, is to learn from how others have dealt with the situation, and taking a page from their book about appreciating what one has while one has it.
Overall
A marvellous, non-preachy story meticulously researched and written by a neuroscientist. Remarkably, it manages to end on a hopeful note. Scads of discussion topics for book clubs. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Showing posts with label Bookclub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bookclub. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Non Laughter Reviews: BOOKCLUB
LOTTERY
by Patricia Wood
Literary Fiction
Premise
Cognitively challenged man wins the lottery, releasing an explosion of opinions about what he should do next.
What Works
This was a very thought-provoking novel in terms of premise as well as literary strategies employed by the author to tell the story, written in first-person point of view. It opens with Perry describing his 'regular' life; working in a marina, functioning according to regular habits of what activities and what meals belong with which days of the week, utterly ignored by brothers and mother who live elsewhere and make him call them 'cousins' and 'Louise' so as to deny the true relationship. Perry was raised by loving grandparents, themselves struggling to cope after their son, Perry's father, embezzled money to abscond to the Caribbean, forcing bankruptcy of their shipyard and the premature death of the grandfather. Soon after the story begins, Perry's beloved grandmother also passes away, and the remaning relatives make off with anything financially valuable in the home and overturn the deceased's arrangements to have the house left for Perry by persuading him to sign a power of attorney. He moves into a small apartment above the marina with his few remaining mementos of his grandmother (a favorite dress, a dictionary, and a book of crossword puzzles - all of which he considers 'the good stuff' because of their connection to her) and struggles to establish new patterns for each day of the week. Supporting him, to the best of their limited ability, are his boss (a family friend of the grandparents), his colleague Keith (an uncouth, emotionally scarred Viet Nam vet), and Cherry, (an abused teenager who works as cashier at the corner store and whom he shyly admires from a distance).
Perry buys the winning ticket. The resultant fame creates all sorts of situations in which he must decide how to respond to suggestions and pressure from those who wish to exploit him as well as those who believe they have his best interests at heart. The choices he makes, the ones he doesn't, and the reasons why make for a very compelling story that forces a close look at what is valuable, the basis for love, whether there should be limits to independence, and how success and failure in life are judged.
What Doesn't
The bookclub debate on the ending was lively, to say the least. Most readers reported at least an initial feeling of passionate unhappiness at what could be interpreted as injustice; however many, if not all, expressed satisfaction at how things turned out once they'd had an opportunity to think on it independently, and for sure after the author shared her reasoning for ending it the way she did. Yes, that's right. The author participated in our bookclub's discussion by telephone from her boat in Hawaii. COOLEST BOOKCLUB DISCUSSION EVER.
That reasoning was: did Perry make the best decisions? Maybe, maybe not. But that was irrelevant; the point was, that it had become important for him to make a 'big' decision completely on his own - and he did, so in that sense, he triumphed. And with that simple observation, eloquently pointed out by a highly-engaged activist for self-determination of people of all capacities, what some readers considered the book's greatest weakness transformed into it's greatest strength.
Overall
A quick, enjoyable, and thoughtful read from a point-of-view that rarely finds an opportunity for widespread expression. Bookclub members were almost unanimous in their final evaluation that they liked it and would recommend the book to others. What the bookclub members were definitely unanimous about was the positive experience of having the chance to interact with the author. Give it a try!
by Patricia Wood
Literary Fiction
Premise
Cognitively challenged man wins the lottery, releasing an explosion of opinions about what he should do next.
What Works
This was a very thought-provoking novel in terms of premise as well as literary strategies employed by the author to tell the story, written in first-person point of view. It opens with Perry describing his 'regular' life; working in a marina, functioning according to regular habits of what activities and what meals belong with which days of the week, utterly ignored by brothers and mother who live elsewhere and make him call them 'cousins' and 'Louise' so as to deny the true relationship. Perry was raised by loving grandparents, themselves struggling to cope after their son, Perry's father, embezzled money to abscond to the Caribbean, forcing bankruptcy of their shipyard and the premature death of the grandfather. Soon after the story begins, Perry's beloved grandmother also passes away, and the remaning relatives make off with anything financially valuable in the home and overturn the deceased's arrangements to have the house left for Perry by persuading him to sign a power of attorney. He moves into a small apartment above the marina with his few remaining mementos of his grandmother (a favorite dress, a dictionary, and a book of crossword puzzles - all of which he considers 'the good stuff' because of their connection to her) and struggles to establish new patterns for each day of the week. Supporting him, to the best of their limited ability, are his boss (a family friend of the grandparents), his colleague Keith (an uncouth, emotionally scarred Viet Nam vet), and Cherry, (an abused teenager who works as cashier at the corner store and whom he shyly admires from a distance).
Perry buys the winning ticket. The resultant fame creates all sorts of situations in which he must decide how to respond to suggestions and pressure from those who wish to exploit him as well as those who believe they have his best interests at heart. The choices he makes, the ones he doesn't, and the reasons why make for a very compelling story that forces a close look at what is valuable, the basis for love, whether there should be limits to independence, and how success and failure in life are judged.
What Doesn't
The bookclub debate on the ending was lively, to say the least. Most readers reported at least an initial feeling of passionate unhappiness at what could be interpreted as injustice; however many, if not all, expressed satisfaction at how things turned out once they'd had an opportunity to think on it independently, and for sure after the author shared her reasoning for ending it the way she did. Yes, that's right. The author participated in our bookclub's discussion by telephone from her boat in Hawaii. COOLEST BOOKCLUB DISCUSSION EVER.
That reasoning was: did Perry make the best decisions? Maybe, maybe not. But that was irrelevant; the point was, that it had become important for him to make a 'big' decision completely on his own - and he did, so in that sense, he triumphed. And with that simple observation, eloquently pointed out by a highly-engaged activist for self-determination of people of all capacities, what some readers considered the book's greatest weakness transformed into it's greatest strength.
Overall
A quick, enjoyable, and thoughtful read from a point-of-view that rarely finds an opportunity for widespread expression. Bookclub members were almost unanimous in their final evaluation that they liked it and would recommend the book to others. What the bookclub members were definitely unanimous about was the positive experience of having the chance to interact with the author. Give it a try!
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