Sunday, October 14, 2012

Still Alice/Left Neglected/Love Anthony

I've written about my friend Lisa Genova before.  She is the author of the above named books.  I first met Lisa a few years ago when she wrote Still Alice -- about a young woman that had younger on-set Alzheimer's (YOAD).  A friend of mine also with younger on-set told me I needed to read the book as the lives of people with YOAD are widely misunderstood. Through him, I got to know Lisa.  In February of 2010 I met Lisa for the first time in Savannah.  She had just finished Left Neglected and was starting to work on Love Anthony.  She told me that Love Athony was about autism.  She was explaining to me how she was handling the subject and I couldn't quite get into my head how it was going to work.  A few weeks ago, Love Anthony came out.  I bought it but didn't pick it up until this weekend.  When I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.

Without ruining the story or the ending for you, I wanted to say that Lisa has nailed this just like in her other two books.  The story involves two women whose lives are paralleled throughout the book, with them coming together at the end. One woman writes a book about autism, the other woman has a son that has autism.  When they meet, the woman who has the son tells the other woman that she has written the story of her son's life.  This was such a poignant moment for me, because when I read Still Alice, I said out loud to no one, "this is the story of my life".  I couldn't believe that she had captured this so eloquently and so on target.  So, when I read this in this book I thought it was very ironic for me.

And, Lisa also gives a shout out to Athens, GA -- which certainly brought a smile to my face.

I know I wrote about Left Neglected when it came out as well.  It's about a neurological condition called Left Neglect.  I had never heard of it and it just fascinated me when I read the book.

If you want a good read, please go get Love, Anthony.  You will not be disappointed -- oh, and bring some tissues because you are going to need them.

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