Book Review: Still Alice by Lisa Genova

    Brumonia Barry, a New York Times bestselling author, said about this book, "Heartbreakingly real... so real, in fact, that it kept me from sleeping for several nights. I couldn't put it down... Still Alice is a story that must be told." 

    Lisa Genova's novel Still Alice is not for the faint of heart. It is a terrifying story of how Alzheimer's disease slowly destroyed the life of college professor Alice Howland. Full of scenes both touching and frightening, it has completely reoriented my view of dementia and especially Alzheimer's. 

    I think Genova's style of writing was perfect for this book. She dwells inside Alice's mind so that you can watch her thinking and functioning deteriorate right before your eyes. You get emotionally attached to Alice and her life and then you watch her get torn apart. Effectively, it makes you feel like one of your own loved ones is being broken by this disease. 

    One of the sadder things that I thought about when reading this book was the thought of how people today handle dementia. Sadly, people treat it flippantly and carelessly, even joking around or making fun of people who have it. Near the end of the book, Alice gives a speech at a dementia care conference. She says, "Please don't look at our scarlet A's and write us off. Look us in the eye, talk directly to us. Don't panic or take it personally if we make mistakes, because we will... We will also try our hardest to compensate for and overcome our cognitive losses. I encourage you to empower us, not limit us... Work with us." That, at its heart, is the goal of this book. You may be shocked, you will be heartbroken, but you will come through the fire of Still Alice with a fuller understanding of this disease and the knowledge that those who have it are still people to walk beside and to love.

    Unfortunately, however, this book is not without its flaws, the greatest of which I would say is probably a measure of cuss words. Less prominently, one of the main characters, Lydia, is an actress with a very unwholesome lifestyle- she has two men for roommates. The conflict in this lifestyle is never actually resolved, but instead one of the threads in this novel is Alice coming to terms with Lydia's lifestyle. On the whole, however, this book really does display a message that needs to be heard, and I would definitely recommend this to older, more mature teen readers and to all adults.

Book Review: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas

     This book makes me cry each time I read it- tears of sorrow and also tears of wonder at the strength of the martyrs portrayed. Every day, I grumble and fuss when I am called to not wear a particular pair of shorts or not go to an unwise event for Christ's sake, entirely ignoring the fact that there were thousands whom God allowed to be imprisoned, slaughtered, beheaded, stoned. Crucified. For the advancement of the Gospel.

    The Robe in this book isn't just a great responsibility that the main character has to shoulder- instead, it is a symbol of the cause that we each must dedicate ourselves to, sacrifice ourselves to, day after day, year after year.

    We have been given a tremendous blessing in Christ, but the fact that we bear it means that we must orient our lives completely with God's will. The true bestowal of God's salvation demands nothing less. That, at its heart, is what I Douglas is communicating in The Robe.

    I would entirely recommend this book to teens and all adults. There is a "clean" romance in it with a few kisses in it, and there are a few instances of the word "damn," but those are all the caveats I can offer. It does portray Jesus, though, and many people object to that. I would definitely agree that portraying Jesus is highly dangerous, and often people will project their own ideals into Jesus' character, which is of course a horrible and sacrilegious thing to do. However, I think that Douglas does a good job at sticking only to what the Bible tells us about Jesus.

    All in all, this book is great for teens and adults and maybe also for a book club, as it could spark some really thought-provoking conversations.