I've only read one other book by this author and that was last year. That review is here.
This novel caught my eye because the title intrigued me. And once again, the author uses lower case letters for the beginning of each word in the title. Yet some of her books don't do this. Interesting that the only two I've read of hers is like this.
STORY SUMMARY
Anna Forster and Jack Forster are twins. They are 38 years old. Jack is married with 3 little boys. Anna was married but left her husband when she discovered she has early onset dementia. Anna and Jack's mother died of Alzheimer's disease.
Anna is soon placed by Jack into a home for the elderly and for dementia patients. It is called Rosalind House. It's an assisted living facility. There are currently 12 residents in the home. It is run by one manager named Eric and several nurses, a gardner, and a cook.
Anna's mind is slowly slipping away from her but she still has her sense of humor and a strong determined spirit. What Anna doesn't tell anyone is a secret: she doesn't plan on staying at Rosalind House.
Until she meets Luke. Luke is the other young dementia patient. He actually has frontaltemporal dementia which mainly affects speech and language skills.
Everyone else residing in Rosalind House are elderly people. Several are women and there are a couple of men. Each person has a very unique personality.
What Anna doesn't expect is that she begins to fall in love with Luke and he with her. As the disease quickly becomes more progressive, stealing more and more of her memory, she fights to hold on to what she knows which includes her relationship with Luke.
The families of Anna and Luke, though, want to keep them apart.
And then Eve Bennett arrives. Eve is the new cook and she also has a secret. Her husband commited a horrible crime and instead of facing prosecution for the Ponzi schemes he was involved in, he commits suicide in his home study. Eve and Richard have one daughter, Clementine, age 7. Eve and Clementine are in the throes of grief, hatred towards Richard, and anger. Eve has lost her house and her former life. She has to move into a very small apartment above a pizza place and uses Rosalind House's address so she can keep Clem in the same school.
When Eve meets Anna and Luke, she is very touched by their relationship and apparent love for one another. And then a tragic accident leaves Anna's family, as well as Lukes, questioning if they should remain together. Eve begins to question what she is willing to risk in order to help them remain together.
Will she succeed?
MY THOUGHTS
This is a heart breaking story because of how young the main character is. However, it is also heart breaking to read what Eve and Clementine have to go through because of Eve's husband's poor choices.
This story shows how love can grow and endure even when faced with great obstacles. It shows the power of love and family. It shows the power of love and friendship.
Although it is a serious topic, the author does a great job in making the characters so believable and the story moves quickly with humor, drama, romance and a bit of mystery.
It shows the reader what is is like to live with Alzheimer's and what it's like to love someone who has it. I liked that the author had us hearing Anna's voice and that some characters in the book looked beyond her disease to see that she was still Anna. They saw her, not the disease.
We hear Anna, Eve, and Clementine in the various chapters. Each chapter is labeled with one of their names and told from their viewpoint/thoughts.
The themes in this book appear to be: single parenthood, suicide, grief, goodness, love, friendship, perseverance, dementia, the elderly, sibling issues, bullying, betrayal, pregnancy.
There were several quotes that stood out to me. My favorites were:
"When you get to be my age...you don't waste time with regrets. In the end, you just remember the moments of joy. When all is said and done, those are the things we keep." (pg 281, the things we keep by Sally Hepworth, c. 2015)
"Our memories are ours to remember, any way we want." (pg. 318)
If you, your family, your close friends or work colleauges have been touched by dementia/Alzheimer's (a form of dementia), I highly recommend you read this book.
This story will stick with me for a bit.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
7 comments:
This is a story that is not only interesting but also heartbreaking due to the fact that the main character is the youngest of the characters. The power of love and family is demonstrated.
Sounds like a good book, Faith. Thanks for the review. Have a great week.
I read this a few year ago and really liked it. I liked that it had a different take than "Still Alice".
Susanne, I felt the same way. I actually MET Lisa Genova on Cape Cod (Chatham) and we chatted a little while about dementia and her book Still Alice!! I thought the movie was pretty good. I saw it via Netflix.
This one sounds so sad....might want to wait until after the holidays before I check it out. I'm just reading all the Christmas feels books:) Hope you are enjoying your December!
A few years ago, I worked as a nurse on a lock-down Alzheimer's unit. It was heart breaking to see what that terrible disease does to people. This book sounds interesting but having seen Alzheimer's in action, I don't know if I could read it. Right now, I'm reading feel-good books. I'm a wimpy reader right now.
This was an excellent review Faithe, I really like how you outline the book so well. Alzheimer's is such a horrible disease, and this book certainly shares the difficult struggles associated with the disease. You did a wonderful review!
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