Still Alice

By: Lisa Genova

Narrated by: Lisa Genova

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

What if every memory you've ever had will be erased from your mind, and you have no choice but to carry on...powerless to stop it?

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At 50 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 begins to grow disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world - forever.

At once beautiful and terrifying, this extraordinary debut novel by Lisa Genova is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Ordinary People.

©2009 Lisa Genova (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"After I read Still Alice, I wanted to stand up and tell a train full of strangers, 'You have to get this book.'" ( Boston Globe)
"With grace and compassion, Lisa Genova writes about the enormous white emptiness created by Alzheimer's." ( The Improper Bostonian)
"A masterpiece that will touch lives in ways none of us can even imagine." ( Alzheimer's Daily News)

Sweet Story

It was a good book. Enjoyed listening. Author was the best pick for the narrative.

Very interesting

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's a heartfelt and beautiful story

Who was your favorite character and why?

Alice - because she was so smart and endearing

Beautiful Story

The writing of this story was incredible and filled with so much emotion. My first Audible and I loved it.

Excellent

This is a very touching book. I also learned a lot about a very difficult disease. It is written with such compassion. No question as to how the author feels about each sentence as she is actually doing the reading. A must for family members involved with the issue.

Great Story.

I thought the story was great. I liked the descriptive way the author explained what was going on. Unfortunately I was not a big fan of her voice. I truly liked the story but her voice just didn't quite fit for me.

Excellent way to obtain empathy

I loved the perspective that it gives you for someone who has Alzheimer’s. My father has it and this book certainly helped in my caring for him. The only thing that ruined it for me was that the author was utterly monotone. Next time, she should write the book but someone else should take the microphone!

A subject to avoid...

Any additional comments?

I can't say I enjoyed this book, but I am very glad it listened to it. The subject matter of Alzheimer's is an uncomfortable one. Having known people who suffer with this difficult disease, I gained insight into what goes on in their head. I think what surprised me most was that as Alice's disease progressed, she seemed happier even though she couldn't identify even her family and couldn't remember things. She began to respond to the love of those around her. Reader sounded a little younger than I would have expected Alice to sound.

Great book

This was a very good book but I think it would behoove the author to have somebody else do the reading. She is too young to be first person and she is just reading. Not enough inflection.

Hits Hard

Let me start out by saying my grandmother had Alzheimer's and I wrote a paper on it in PT school. I had a little bit of a knowledge base and a personal connection to the disease starting out. I don't know if that might have had an effect on my opinion of the book but I thought it was something that I should explain for context.

Next I will point out that normally when the author narrates, it's a total disaster. Ms. Genova, however, did an admirable job. Her pronunciation of the word "Alzheimer's" as though there is a T after the L was irritating but not terribly distracting. As she is not a professional narrator, she does not have different voices for each character but typically that wasn't a point of confusion as the text did a very good job of explaining who was speaking.

The characters were all slightly self absorbed at different times throughout the story and I found myself not really liking them. However, there is no denying that they were suffering and dealing with their experience the best way they knew how. I certainly had plenty of empathy for them.

Watching Alice decline is heartbreaking but so accurate. By the end I was in tears and I do not normally cry. This story does not sugar coat the pain of Alzheimer's nor should it. I hope that the recent breakthroughs in understanding this disease lead to better long term treatment if not a cure.

Loved the book. Disliked the narration.

Loved the book, but struggled with the author's own narration of the book. Her enunciations of certain words wore on me and distracted me from the story.