Still Alice, a novel by Lisa Genova, follows Alice Howland throughout her journey with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The reader is introduced to Alice at the apex of her career as a linguistics expert and cognitive psychology professor at Harvard University. Known for her impressive ability to understand language and memory, Alice begins to experience lapses in memory that continue to escalate after her 50thth birthday. Alice notably keeps her diagnosis a secret from her husband John and three adult children, Anna, Tom, and Lydia. Each family member copes differently with Alice’s diagnosis. As a cancer cell biologist, John struggles to accept the finality of Alice’s diagnosis and spends his time seeking a cure for Alice while in the lab. The reader will conclude that John sacrificed quality time with Alice to obtain quantity of time with Alice. The reader walks with Alice throughout multiple stages of her disease process: onset of symptoms, diagnosis, disclosure of diagnosis to family, and finally on to later stages when she no longer recognizes her family. There are prominent themes within the book which prompt the reader to reflect on their own sources of hope and endurance. Suffering Like many who are faced with a chronic illness, Alice asks the question “Why” many times. Like Alice, many struggle to reconcile physical suffering with God’s goodness. How can any good come from a disease like Alzheimer’s? What is the purpose of suffering? The book accurately reflects Suffering and Hope in Still Alice Anna Hurt and Melissa Brown
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