Still Alice: Touchingly true portrayal of life with Alzheimer by Lisa Genova

Posted on May 3, 2015 Updated on May 3, 2015

Alice is an intelligent highly accomplished cognitive psychology Harvard professor, a mother and a wife. She is enjoying great health at the age of around fifty and yet she starts forgetting words, places, and people. Written from the perspective of an Alzheimer patient, the book is very readable. The drama of Alice’s life is touching and disturbingly true. It depicts how her memory starts regressing and how it alienates her from the rest of the world. All the characters and situations in the book appear to be real. The discussion of the disease, the treatment, the gene that can lead to an early onset of Alzheimer; all details come naturally in the story. At no point the book deviates from its form of a novel. Alice’s struggle to cope with her life when her memory is fading is as readable as the story of those around her. I think this wholesome approach is what gives the book a major plus. I like the title of the book as well as it sums up Alice’s condition very well.
I did not see the movie because I always think books are better than movies. In this case particularly, the prose that describes the workings of the mind beautifully is difficult to put in action.
I would love to hear from those who have read the book and have also seen the movie.