Seventy-one, and a man used to controlling those around him, Saul struggles to make peace with his disconnected family before Alzheimer's consumes his sanity.
His ramblings, humour, emotions, lucid moments, and confusion are laid bare, as well as the thoughts and feelings of his loved ones: his wife, Monique, conflicted and depressed...caring, yet angry; his daughter, Florence, compassionate, yet proper and reserved; his son, Joey, self-centred and narcissistic, seemingly indifferent to his family's challenges; and his doctor, an Alzheimer's specialist, who cares for Saul until his final days.
From the beginning Saul and his family know how it has to end, because no one has ever outsmarted Alzheimer's. But as they navigate the meandering road that will eventually bring Saul's demise, they leave behind their once disconnected lives and come together to weather their difficult journey.
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I was always considered a pit peculiar, so no one probably suspected anything until a dreary October afternoon when I removed my grey flannel trousers, opened the front door of my house, and ambled down the street.-SAUL, THE BEGINNING OF THE END
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(Lake Union Publishing, 23 January 2015, e-book, 278 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I enjoyed An Absent Mind but I'm not sure if enjoy if the right word for a book that turned me into a sobbing wreck. My gran had Alzheimer's and Saul reminds me a lot of her and how rapid the disease deteriorated her cognitive abilities. The author has got the symptoms and decline spot on. I liked the fact the chapters have different narrators including Saul and his family. The chapters narrated by Saul are especially poignant later in the book as his conditions worsen and they become a few scribbled, incoherent words. This is a real heart-puncher. I mean that as a compliment.
