The Maze of Memory

After the release of the film, Still Alice, that fetched Julianne Moore a richly deserved Oscar, there has been renewed interest in Lisa Genova’s debut novel.

The book was first self-published in 2007, and sold by the author out of the trunk of her car, before it was picked up by Simon & Schuster and went on to become a bestseller.

Genova is a neuroscientist herself, so her book about a woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease, is very detailed and informative.

Alice Howland and her husband, John, both professors at Harvard, are in a happy and stable marriage. Their daughter Anna is a corporate lawyer trying to get pregnant; son Tom is in medical school and the youngest, Lydia, is an aspiring actress and the black sheep in the mind of her mother, who would rather she went to college and got a proper education.

 Alice is a popular professor and much in demand speaker; the first hint of trouble comes when in the midst of a lecture, she forgets a word. Then, while running on her usual route, she gets lost. She forgets to go to a conference where she was scheduled to speak. Believing that her increasing forgetfulness is a symptom of menopause, she goes to see her doctor and is put through tests that indicate Alzheimer’s Disease. She is just fifty, fit and healthy, so the first reaction is disbelief and then denial.

There is no cure for this mental ailment, medication can just slow down the cognitive impairment caused by the disease, it cannot be halted. Alice’s decline is rapid and she is disturbed to note that her friends and colleagues start treating her like a pariah, because of their fear of mental illness. She can only rage against her misfortune—in a heart-breaking scene, she smashes dozens of eggs in frustration, as she cannot remember the recipe of the Christmas pudding she makes for her family every year.

Alzheimer’s Disease is tough on the family and the caregivers too, as a lot of patience is required to deal with the patient’s memory loss and resultant mood swings and tantrums.  It is rare in the ‘me-myself’ American society, but the Howland family rallies together, going so far as to vehemently oppose John’s decision to move to New York for the sake of career growth.

While she still has moments of lucidity, Alice is able to repair her relationship with Lydia, who comes across as sympathetic and willing to make sacrifices to care for her mother.   Early testing shows that Anna has inherited the mutated gene that causes the disease, but she goes ahead with her plans to start a family and is relieved that her kids are clear. The hope is that by the time her symptoms shows, medical science would have found a way to deal with it.

Genova spares the reader the full impact of the trauma caused to Alice and her family, by ending the story before she is completely wrecked. In one of the novel’s highs, she addresses the Annual Dementia Care Conference. “Being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is like being branded with a scarlet A,” she says, “but I am not what I say or what I do or what I remember. I am fundamentally more than that… Please don’t look at our scarlet A’s and write us off.”

The book moves the reader by its compassion, though is a depressing read. Ultimately, the disease is such that there is no hope, only the slow stretching of the tragedy over a period of time, till the patient is reduced to a hollow shell, empty of life-affirming memory.

Still Alice
By Lisa Genova

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pages: 352