Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

I have to be honest and say initially, I didn’t think that I would enjoy reading Still Alice as much as I did. When it came to finding it on good reads, I was only struck with curiosity, not excitement.

However now that I’ve read it, I know for certain I am going to have great difficulty trying to put my words down; I have a tendency to pre-plan my reviews, purely because if I come across another thought then I can just simply add it, before I feel comfortable enough to post it.

With this review, all I can say is that I am glad of my organization because I know for sure that whilst you read this, chances are I spent 10 minutes staring at my laptop screen thinking ‘how the hell do I note this down?’

I know for a specifically long time, I shed admiration for authors who don’t lay down false expectations, especially when it comes to such subjects as these but in this sense, I almost wish their was some false expectation simply because it would sooth me.

(Taken from good reads).

“Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life--and her relationship with her family and the world--forever.”

Without needing to think too far ahead, we are immediately informed that we are going to be taken on a journey with Alice, where we are capable of viewing her life from her perspective and watch as she not only develops, but learns to live with her diagnosis.

I have to say that, a lot of authors tend to include characters that may have cancer and it is more then likely, that the plot twist at the end is the death of a father or a brother, whom has said disease.

But one thing that doesn’t necessarily irk me yet it does sit uncomfortably, is that because say cancer is discussed to such an extent, people feel that it is correct to make an assumption regarding the disease.

I guess when I type that, not all will understand the meaning yet some might, and hopefully you will.

Yet my main point to discuss here is that, with this book we are allowed to witness, more then just diagnosis; we are capable of watching the slow change of Alice’s character, we watch as the effects take control and begin to have an effect on her, not only that but we see the battle with her family and we see her families strain as well their thoughts, which in most situations, goes undiscovered.

For me, the book was found to be very short, which I think in some way was rather handy because I know if it were any longer, I would have created empathy (more then what I wish there to be) for the character Alice and this would have most likely have made the book difficult to deal with.

I myself have had personal experience with similar effects, where my brain has dealt with a disease, which unfortunately has left me with permanent side effects, and I feel that when it comes to such things as this, it should be the whole hog, not just certain aspects. I feel I can only be comforted if you write it all correctly, or don’t write it at all, which I guess is a personal preference and it won’t sit rightly with every one.

Nevertheless, I found the book to be very enlightening and my knowledge about the illness has increased, as well as making me that little wiser. I found it to be liberating and this book has most definitely made it onto my favourite books list.