The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. Or watch the Oscar-winning movie “ Iris”.Īlso, check out the Society for Neuroscience’s primer about Alzheimer’s disease. (Full disclosure: in one of the most poignant moments in the book, Alice forgets a critical piece of electronics inside the fridge, with vital consequences… well, I’ve done the same exact thing at least once, although with far less momentous results).įor extra credit, read “ Elegy for Iris”, literary critic John Bayley’s memoir about his wife, novelist Iris Murdoch, and her battle with Alzheimer’s disease. As a fellow academic, I also found the protagonist very relatable. Genova followed up her Still Alice success with two more novels grounded in clinical neuroscience: Left Neglected, about a patient suffering from hemineglect, and most recently, Love Anthony, about a child with autism (I haven’t read it yet).īoth Still Alice and Left Neglected are moving and well-written stories, but if I had to choose I’d go for the more restrained tone of Still Alice.
Still Alice describes the descent of Alice, a successful professor and researcher, into early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and the consequences for her family and career. The book became an overnight sensation that led to a six-figure advance from publishing house Simon and Shuster. Harvard-trained neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova couldn’t get agents or publishers interested in her debut novel Still Alice. “ Everything she did and love, everything she was, required language.” Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. note: A previous version of this post appeared on Sleights of Mind. Note Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022.
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