Rappelez-vous votre vie effrontée

by Jean Hegland

From the author of Into the Forest, a moving novel about memory, Shakespeare's green worlds, and the power of reconciliation.

Until John Wilson met the warm, wise woman who became his fourth wife, the object of his most intense devotion had always been the work of William Shakespeare. From his feat of memorizing Romeo and Juliet and half a dozen other plays as a student to his evangelical zeal as a professor, John’s faith in the Bard has shaped his life. But now his mental powers have been diminished by dementia, and his wife has reluctantly moved him to a residential care facility. Even there, as he struggles to understand what’s going on around him, John's knowledge of the plays helps him make sense of his fractured world.

Yet, when his only child, Miranda—with whom he has not spoken since a devastating misunderstanding a decade ago—comes to visit, John begins to question some of his deepest convictions. In his devotion to Shakespeare, did he lose his way? Did he wrong the child who wronged him? The story of an imperfect father and a wounded daughter's efforts to achieve some authentic connection even now, Still Time celebrates redemption and the gift of second chances. It is that rare novel that ends on a resounding note of hope, reminding us that there is always time to live fully and love deeply, so long as we are alive.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Shakespeare, Roman, Family

320 pages

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Jean Hegland's first novel, INTO THE FOREST, has been translated into eleven languages and is a frequent choice for campus- and community-wide reading programs. A film version starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood is scheduled for release in spring 2015. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY promises her second novel, WINDFALLS, is “a good prospect for reading groups.” Excerpts from her non-fiction work, THE LIFE WITHIN: CELEBRATION OF A PREGNANCY, have appeared in a junior high school science textbook, a college English textbook, and a guided journal for pregnant women. STILL TIME, her most recent novel, celebrates the work of William Shakespeare while taking a hopeful look at the harrowing challenges of dementia. Jean is a frequent presenter at writers' conferences and has taught creative writing for many years, both in California and abroad. She lives in the Northern Californian woods where she is always at work on another book.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 3 out of 5]

You probably need to appreciate Shakespeare some, well maybe a lot , to appreciate this novel and to understand a little more about John Wilson, a retired professor and Shakespeare scholar who has Alzheimer's. Quotations from many of the plays and references to characters are interspersed throughout. While it's been years since I've actually read or seen a Shakespearean play , I had the opportunity to read a majority of them in my literature courses in college many years ago . While I did not remember most of the quotes and only some of the characters mentioned, I loved reading the lines here but at times it seemed a bit too much and the Shakespeare references took over John's story, although I believe the mechanism was meant to help tell it .

Just retired, planning his writing and time with Sally , his fourth wife and the love of his life, John finally gets it right in the marriage department but doesn't have the joy of that relationship long as he begins to forget . His wife Sally sadly has to place him in a nursing home where he doesn't want to be and continues to forget. He still remembers many of the plays and the lines that he had memorized years before and he remembers his little girl, Miranda, that he has been estranged from for ten years .

His wife believes there is "still time" for reconciliation and contacts Miranda . Over the course of this short novel, father and daughter meet several times and the reader gets caught up on what kept them apart for all these years . This was a sad story about lost time and misunderstandings for both father and daughter .

I couldn't help but compare to another professor who had Alzheimer's in Still Alice and I just was not able to make the connection with the characters in this book as much as I did in Still Alice . Overall a good story and I mostly enjoyed the flashbacks to Miranda's childhood. I wish there had been more so I could have connected better with the characters .

Thank you to Arcade Publishing and Edelweiss.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Shakespeare's lover dream of a book and for many years the love and profession of John's life. A Professor who wrote many articles he had looked forward to retirement, a change to wrote more and to spend time with his fourth wife Sally and maybe time to mend things with his only daughter Miranda. Instead he will find himself in a green room, surrounded by people he does not know, unable to find the words he needs, wants only to go home.

This is the internal struggle of a brilliant man who know has Alzheimers. His wife has tried to keep him at home as long as she could, but it became to dangerous. He can recall Shakespeare and often, actually almost always, peppers his conversations and answers to questions with quotes from the Bard. This can be amusing, but also sad. He goes over his life in his head wondering how he got here from there, thoughts of his past flitting in and out. Beautiful words, beautiful sentences. When he thinks in one of his clearer moments,

"Had he ever truly known his own luck? he wonders now. Had he ever lived inside his life as fully as his life - and he - deserved?

Very few characters, his wife passes in and out and we learn what caused his daughter to be estranged from her father. Is there time to correct this? When the man she knew when she was younger is so often not there? A very good book, yes I think you must like or at least appreciate Shakespeare , to fully immerse yourself in this novel. At the finish I felt melancholy, it was hard not be touched by this once brilliant man's struggles.

[charlie medusa · Rating 4 out of 5]

je pense je suis pas suffisamment à fond dans le délire Shakespeare pour avoir tout saisi (MAIS ça m'a donné envie de lire tout Shakespeare pour ensuite revenir à ce livre et tout bien comprendre ce qui est, je crois, une géniale réussite de Jean Hegland) et y a certains passages que j'ai un peu survolés pck l'analyse d'une oeuvre que tu n'as jamais lue is only fun when it's about Fifty Shades of Grey MAIS
MAIS
MAIS
qu'est-ce que la façon de rendre compte du monologue intérieur d'un homme atteint d'Alzheimer est BRILLANTE. genre. j'ai pris une immense claque de littérature, merci infiniment Jean pour cela tu n'en finis tout simplement pas de devenir mon écrivaine préférée lol

très très émue par sa postface également, de me rendre compte que ce n'est pas un hommage à Shakespeare pour le simple fait de rendre hommage à Shakespeare, mais parce que son père à elle était un grand shakespearophile, et qu'à travers le personnage de John, c'est un peu de l'amour de son père qu'elle convoque, et c'est son héritage qu'elle continue de perpétuer. c'était très très beau !!!

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Because only the fools among us fail to realize how imperfect human understanding is. Anything we think we know about a situation or someone else or even ourselves is always limited by that old trap, point of view.”

I did not love Into the Forest, Hegland’s other novel, but I was glad that I read it. So, when given the opportunity to read Still Time, I jumped at the chance. I am so grateful to the publisher for giving me this opportunity.

I can’t wait until this is published to tell people about this small, quiet novel. In some ways not a lot happens, it is just one man’s experience of old age. However, in other ways this is the story of everything. I believe it is about everything because what Hegland is really writing about is love. What is more important than love?

John Wilson has always loved Shakespeare. His whole life has been guided by the fact he was able to learn and teach the Bard’s plays. Now his memory is catching up with him. That is the only synopsis that I want to give. I knew nothing about the novel as I started and I believe the reader only needs to know that the story is true – it may be fiction , but there are truths in Hegland’s writings.

Little things make a big difference. We all know that. Often when we look back on our lives we can see a turning point or something we did that did not seem to be a big deal at the time. But now, with hindsight, we can see what changes that small thing made. In this tale, Hegland shows us those tiny times that made all the difference.

I did not find Still Time to be the happiest of reads. I was saddened by missed opportunities. However, the characters’ willingness to try again was heartening. The need and desire for forgiveness makes for a good tale.

If you like quiet books where much of the action is internal, this may be the novel for you. I recommend it to anyone who hopes to grow old.

Thank you to Arcade Publishing and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read this novel.

[david · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor. Shakespeare.

Ex-wives. New wife.

A daughter. Dementia.

Aphasia. Always Alzheimer’s.

Little life. Big words.

Death, always. Heaven by hope.

Hell. Sleep, sleep.

Purple peace. Fey realities.

Chimerical vanity. Serious hate.

Unspoken love. Coy courage.

Obols, shekels. Mauve mansions.

Conflicting arguments. Intended execrations.

Lost mnemonics. Perilous fugues.

False panegyrics. Splintered argot.

Plentiful penury. Smoked Baltic sturgeon.

Young truths. Old lies.

Random red. Dying dreams.

Dated costumes. Furious and fake.

Illusions. Desires. Delusions.

Anticipated answers. Questions by design.

Lovely and indelicate.

Happy enough. Seriously sad.

Only all. Never nothing.

Hate. Love. Hypocrisy.

Un-like. De-love.

So, so silly. Intensely serious.

Inane beginnings. Tick-tock.

Middles. Tick…tick…tock.

Cloaked endings.

[Janette Mcmahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a galley copy provided by the publisher. A look at how Alzheimer's effects the main character, a Shakespearian professor, as he continues to deteriorate. His daughter, Miranda, hasn't spoken to her father for years tries to recapture their relationship before it is too late. Hegland brings emotions to the surface and the leaves the reader emotionally exhausted. Recommend to readers of Genova and Picoult.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very moving story about a Shakespeare scholar who has recently moved to a nursing home due to Alzheimer’s. Your heart will break as you witness his struggle to deal with the failure of language, memory and thought process. This is a man who memorized whole Shakespeare plays and now doesn’t know where he is or what day it is. At times, he leaves the strange and unfamiliar world of the nursing home behind as he travels in his mind to events of his past and loses himself in the stories written by Shakespeare. Other times, he’ll catch a glimpse of the past but will then lose the thread of thought and memory.

The novel also explores his estranged relationship with his daughter, Miranda. A misunderstanding of many years ago still stands between them and the question throughout the book is whether there’s still time for them to make things right again. The book really brought home the truth of how finite our time on earth is.

I loved the way the author included parts of Shakespeare throughout the story. John is so entrenched in his life-long study of Shakespeare that he speaks as though he were in a Shakespeare play and he compares all that has happened to him in his life to those stories of long ago. The story shows the importance of literature in our lives and how it anchors us more firmly to the world around us.

It’s a slow moving book, yet I couldn’t tear myself away from it and was glued to its pages. The author is a master at bringing her characters to life and so realistically portraying their thoughts. It’s a heart wrenching book and it touched me deeply. This is the first book I’ve read by Jean Hegland but it certainly won’t be the last.

This book was given to me by the publisher through Edelweiss in return for an honest review.

[Kathe]

A quiet little novel about.... oh, relationships and healing and the joys of language and learning and yes, Shakespeare. Much-married professor of Shakespeare John Wilson is starting to lose his mind, but as often happens with dementia, long-term memory remains -- notably the many plays he memorized in his youth and subsequently taught. His estranged daughter Miranda drifts in and out of the story, as does wife number 4, his true love in late life, Sally, a beekeeper ("beauty is in the eye of the bee holder," he tells her). I loved the ending -- not too pat, but drawing several strands together.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

review will follow.

[CharlesJoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juste absolument époustouflant dans la manière de nous faire entrer dans le monologue intérieur d'une personne atteinte d'Alzheimer, c'est soigné et extrêmement bien pensé, avec un souci de réalisme qui nous embarque complètement. Ça et le plaisir de plonger dans l'univers de Shakespeare à travers le personnage d'un universitaire spécialiste, vraiment ce roman nous offre une expérience d'une immense qualité.

[Jozel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, sad and lyrical

[zloup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beaucoup trop mims

[JoBeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember the tongue-in-cheek title A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius? No, this book isn't anything like that Dave Eggars memoir. But Still Time comes close to living up to that title, being heartbreaking, and approaching genius in it's structure - a Shakespearean scholar's Alzheimers' descent remarkably portrayed through his fragmented memories of his life and his scholarship. Those familiar with Shakespeare will "get" more than I did - with apologies to my college Shakespeare professor for not retaining more. The sometimes-robust, sometimes-jumbling, illuminating, and obscuring scenes, phrases, and finally snippets of the bard accompany and more often overshadow the professor's attempts to work out four marriages, an estranged daughter, and a professional fiasco that haunts him more doggedly than the chorus of unhappy women.

[Glenn Younger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wandering story of a wandering mind

The writing is pure poetry as the prose wanders through a mind unraveling with dementia. For that, it is brilliant.

Personally, though, I give it three stars. There was too much repetition to keep me truly engaged. Since I kept wanting something to HAPPEN, the abundance of Shakespeare soon became frustrating.

That being said, if you’re a lover of Shakespeare or are studying Shakespeare, then put this book on your must read list. Even though all the references made the story cumbersome for me, the author does inspire a renewed appreciation for Shakespeare’s work.

Also, if anyone you know has Alzheimers, this book will shed light on what they’re going through.

[Leanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long."

I'm not well-versed in Shakespeare at all, so enjoying this book was difficult. I'm sure there was so much lost on me... However if you have an interest in Shakespeare I'm sure this book would be a delight to read!

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

”I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

Pray you now forget, and forgive: I am old and foolish.”

Many readers will recognise these lines from King Lear - for me, the most haunting and memorable of Shakespeare’s plays. It took a little while for this book and its protagonist to grow on me, but by the end the author had skilfully woven all of the threads together. Is it possible to write a book about Alzheimer’s disease and make it more hopeful and positive than tragic? I think that the author just about managed it.

Nearly all of the book takes place in the mind and mutterings of Dr. John Wilson, an English professor who was once known for his “great mind” and his thorough command of his subject: the plays of Shakespeare. Shakespeare is his touchstone in every sense, and the words and characters of the plays are just as real to John as his own relationships and life choices have been. When so much else has been lost or muddled, these Shakespearean fragments are what he “shores up against his ruins” (to borrow from TS Eliot).

At the beginning of the book, John’s Alzheimer’s disease has progressed to the point that his wife Sally feels she can no longer take care of him at home. While the other residents of the care home allow themselves to be corralled into socialising, John keeps to his room. He has the constant, nagging sense that he has important work to do, and that the understanding he is searching for can be found in the texts of the Bard whose words he has devoted his life to. Occasionally a care home attendant will intrude into John’s restless and relentless mental wanderings, and remind him (and the reader) of his situation, but most of the storyline is the drama in John’s mind which toggles back and forth between past and present.

The themes of forgetting and forgiveness are woven throughout the plot, and over and over again John reaches for these words, these themes, and senses that they are the key to understanding something critical, something that he has forgotten. Gradually we become aware that John has a young daughter named Miranda who he has been estranged from for ten years. He still blames her for an event which precipitated his professional decline, while she feels that her father has abandoned her. They parted on a climax of anger, hurt and misunderstanding; they are at odds and they do not speak the same language.

Miranda will visit her father three times during the course of the book, and each time we are aware of the difficulty of the situation. How can either of them find the understanding which might lead to forgiveness and reconciliation when John is losing both mind and memory? John will deeply connect with King Lear’s simple declaration that “I did her wrong,” while not fully able to make the connection between Lear’s pain as a father and his own. He is still looking to Shakespeare for answers, even when he can only grasp at the questions which plague him.

Although Shakespeare’s work thoroughly permeates this story - his words and characters are on every page - there is an interesting and modern parallel to the storytelling in Miranda’s fledgling career as a video game designer. One of the most satisfying details of the book, for me, comes from the collaboration between these two, father and daughter, on the idea of a “Green World.” Even as John begins to doubt the value of storytelling, of his life’s work, he is passing on more than he can grasp or realise.

”Green World. You gave me the idea, Dad. How green worlds make people change, how confusion leads to transformation, and we have to leave our known safe lives before we can become anything really new. I worked these ideas into a concept for a game about how art and nature mirror and question each other, how humans are the interface between them. It’s about finding a way to come to terms with chaos, and holding on to what matters, even as we let it go.”

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je me suis lancée dans cette lecture suite à un défi que je m'étais lancé : j'ai demandé à un proche de choisir un livre pour moi, sans lire le résumé, en se fiant uniquement la couverture.
Quand j'ai découvert que c'était ce roman qui avait été choisi, je me suis dit "Chouette, ça m'a tout l'air d'être un roman historique" et je me suis lancée dans l'histoire sans lire la quatrième de couverture avant.

Au début, j'ai déchanté et j'ai mis un bon tiers du livre avant de rentrer pleinement dans ma lecture : il ne s'agit pas d'un roman historique mais d'un roman contemporain, qui traite de la maladie d'Alzheimer. John Wilson, grand spécialiste de Shakespeare, en est atteint et on est plongés directement dans ses pensées.
Les pages semblent donc décousues au premier abord : on passe d'un souvenir à un autre, on découvre via de multiples retours dans le passé la vie de John, sa découverte de Shakespeare, ses recherches et sa vie amoureuse.

En réalité, une fois passé la surprise du roman, j'ai trouvé que ce style littéraire était incroyablement adapté au personnage, comme si nous vivions avec lui ce sentiment des pensées qui s'échappent, de ne plus se souvenir. C'était bouleversant.

Tout au long du roman, nous sommes en immersion totale dans l'œuvre de Shakespeare : les références sont multiples, beaucoup de dialogues et de personnages sont cités.
Cela m'a donné envie de découvrir plus de pièces de Shakespeare (je n'ai lu que Roméo et Juliette) et de relire ensuite ce roman pour mieux comprendre toutes les références.

Ce roman traite également de l'amour filial et du pardon : va-t-il, alors que ses souvenirs sont morcelés, parvenir à se réconcilier avec sa fille, avec qui il est en froid depuis de nombreuses années ?

La fin m'a en tout cas profondément émue, c'est une lecture qui restera gravée dans ma mémoire et que je recommande même si elle peut être assez pesante moralement. En lisant la note de l'autrice, on découvre qu'elle s'est inspirée de son propre vécu et cela rend le roman d'autant plus vrai et touchant.

[Alesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most brilliant novels I've read in a long time. It's about a retired Shakespeare professor who has Alzheimers. His beloved wife has to put him in a care facility, which angers and confuses him, of course. But there's so much more to the story than the memory portion.

Almost every page contains either a quotation from, or reference to, the bard. Shakespeare is woven into the professor's every thought, and informs his meditations on the meaning of life. He has always maintained that studying Shakespeare helps people to live more meaningful and richer lives; he himself uses Shakespeare to fathom the meaning of his own life. Reading this made me wish I knew more about Shakespeare, because then I would have gotten a lot more out of the book.

I loved the way Hegland described the way a wandering Alzheimers mind works -- writing with great empathetic and without judgment or irritation. "'Chance,' John muses, offering the word like bait to the ocean inside his mind, waiting to see what it might net."

I also loved how the author brought her characters to a place of atonement and forgiveness, despite lifelong grudges and hurts. We watch a rather pedantic fellow, who has been quite full of himself through life, become humbled and learn the importance of ordinary human interaction. And, in fact, some important lessons he learns through recalling past lectures he gave to college students. A good example is, "Anything we think we know about a situation or someone else or even ourselves is always limited by that old trap, point of view. Just as we are all of us stuck in time, so we are also stuck inside ourselves, doomed to live and die inside our own thick skulls." He says this as he himself is doomed to spend the rest of his life inside an increasingly senile mind.

This book cast a spell over me, and all of life stopped until I reached the last page.

[Glenys · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite an amazing work of literary value.
Jean Hegland steps inside the failing mind of John Wilson, a scholar and lecturer in Shakespeare.
John has been a devotee of the works of Shakespeare since discovering the plays in his teens. He has gone so far as to memorise several plays from beginning to end. It is ironic then, that the novel opens with his wife, Sally - his fourth wife, "his last and best wife" explaining that she is no longer able to care for him and keep him safe as he sinks into Alzheimer's.
Despite being much-married, he seems unable to develop or maintain true personal relationships. Only Sally and his estranged daughter have really mattered to him.
As John tries to come to terms with life in a care facility, his daughter, Miranda, visits in the hope of reconciliation. It has been ten years and their lives have been vastly different. Miranda has not been the daughter that her father wished for and expected her to be but he does not know the full reason for their estrangement.
Sally has hopes that there is Still Time to heal the breach.
Jean Hegland tells the story beautifully and we glimpse inside the mind of a man who is losing touch with all that has meant everything to him. He is not a likeable character but Ms Hegland manages to draw the reader in and seek empathy.
Her language is beautiful and she uses archaic terms to help the reader feel John's world. The Elizabethan English is John's "native tongue". He thinks, feels and speaks as though he too, is one of Shakespeare's characters.
While we cannot know what it feels like to slip into dementia at this level, Jean Hegland does leave the reader with a little hope for those who are left to make memories and for those who are leaving to find peace.
Clever writing: a mix of archaic and modern expressions and lovely descriptions.

[Gal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je dirais quatre étoiles pour la qualité intrinsèque du roman, deux pour le plaisir que j'ai eu à le lire, donc ça fait trois au total ! (j'essaie d'être presque objective, haha).
J'ai trouvé que l'Alzheimer était bien représenté, mais finalement de manière plutôt convenue. Trop de réminiscences, trop de style, pas assez d'intrigue et de contenu à mon goût. Sans doute les vrais pros de Shakespeare y trouvent-ils leur bonheur, mais comme dans Graine de Sorcière, de Margaret Atwood, j'ai eu l'impression de rester un rien sur le bord du chemin... Pourtant je ne m'y connais pas trop mal, je pense, pour une francophone.
Bref, pas transcendée. Le personnage principal n'est pas franchement sympathique (et assez classique), sa fille est esquissée (le jeu vidéo m'a eu l'air plus cosmétique que maîtrisé...), et beaucoup de temps est passé dans les méandres confus d'un esprit qui s'étiole, sur des thématiques qui m'ont paru un chouïa trop obscures.
Comme de coutume, c'est intéressant de constater que l'Alzheimer a été bien représenté (ou du moins, comme on imagine que doit penser un patient, ce qu'en réalité, on ne sait pas), mais par contre, les souvenirs du passé sont hyper construits, en utilisant la mémoire comme un enregistreur, ce qu'on sait faux (les souvenirs sont diffus par essence et très rarement linéaires) (mais bon, c'est un poncif de fiction).
Bref, au total, intéressant, et sûrement de bonne qualité, mais pas assez original / narratif pour moi.

[Taid Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a bit unfair of me to attempt to review a novel by a friend and former colleague, but Jean Hegland's new novel is wonderful in its humanity. The story of John Wilson, a Shakespeare scholar facing increasing dementia, is heartbreaking at times. Wilson was a man with great sensitivity to literature who memorized complete plays. However, even with his memory and knowledge, he could be a difficult man. His fourth wife is faced with putting him into a home as he his care grows more grueling. Shakespeare’s plays and lessons from them stay with him to a degree, though altered by his condition. A long wounded and ignored daughter reenters his life, and what would be a terribly devastation novel about a horrible condition of living, with her arrival, sustains some beauty, some sense of love. That is also the novel's gift to readers. I talked to several people, who like me have lost close family to the horrors of dementia but also read the book. The novel doesn't cure the pains, but does give readers new insights into the sometimes seemingly empty person facing them.

[Corrina Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book showed up on my BookBub feed and I got it for a couple bucks on my Kobo.

I have to say, I sure got my money's worth. The last time I shed a tear while reading was when I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society" some years back. It takes a lot to get a response like that from me. The multiple Shakespearean references did not distract from the story for me, as other reviewers have criticized. Whether you understand or appreciate Shakespeare or not, the bard is an intrinsic part of the main character, John--an often flawed and self-absorbed character, and yet I loved and pitied him all the more for that. John's descent into dementia is chronicled so tenderly, to the point that his journey became poetic to me. I came to love the supporting characters as well in this beautifully rendered novel. A good story-teller compels the reader to do some self-examining. This novel may leave you wondering what things may have happened to the people important to while you were too distracted to notice.

I will have to look for Hegland's other novels.

[Barbara Ginsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching story. The quote from Karen Joy Fowler on the book cover captures it well. “A moving, beautiful story about what persists and what doesn’t, about what can be repaired and what can’t.”

Jean Hegland strikes a balance between telling the story while wading through the murky dementia of her main character, Dr. John Wilson. Hegland allows you to enter his world of dementia. Sometimes you enter in small ways like her repeatedly mentioning the same caregiver - Matty on her name badge - as if you too are meeting her for the first time again and again. And in large ways with John’s stream of consciousness which flows of Shakespeare lines often linked to his deep emotions, to glimpses of his memories of wives and daughter, and real life in his care facility as it unfolds. It’s a patchworked play of love and regret even as the worn patches come apart as the stitches holding the pieces together are unraveling.

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout his life, John Wilson struggles with commitment, as is evidenced by his serial marriages and his troubled relationship with his only child, Miranda. His career as a college professor specializing in Shakespearean studies always comes first; all else is a distant second. Although this makes him a selfish myopic person, he is a brilliant charismatic teacher. Back in the day, it is easy to imagineI fighting for a place in his classes/seminars. However dementia robs him of all that, leaving only scraps of memory, bits and pieces of immortal lines untethered to reality, and deep distressing confusion.

I enjoyed this novel immensely, especially as John’s disintegration is mirrored in “King Lear”. I could easily have given it “5” but for a minor quibble. I recommend it highly nevertheless, especially to those with even the most basic familiarity with the Bard.

[Deborah Lussier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written!

This is a story about a Shakespeare scholar with Alzheimer's living in a memory care unit. The story is seen through his eyes and his estranged daughter. They say a person who has dementia speaks in his first language. John's true language is Elisabethian. He communicates through verses from Shakespeare plays. A person who has Alzheimer's often has difficulty communicating and is often confused, and the people n the receiving end can be frustrated and confused. This concept is beautifully protected in this story through both John and his daughter as they both try to mend their relationship. Near the end of the story we see Johns thoughts turn into fragments as his diseases progresses, yet we also see that words are not the only way we can express ourselves.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les thèmes de la perte d'autonomie, de la dépendance et de l'enfermement sont particulièrement difficiles pour moi, alors cette histoire d'un homme qui est institutionnalisé pour la maladie d'Alzheimer a été franchement rude à lire.

Il y avait quelque chose de vraiment douloureux dans l'impossibilité de la communication entre ce père et sa fille. Mais j'ai été très touchée par cette histoire, la foi qu'elle exprime en la puissance de la littérature et la possibilité du pardon. La fin du livre est d'une grande douceur.

Je pense malheureusement que ma faible connaissance de Shakespeare (je n'ai lu que les tragédies, en traduction, il y a plus de quinze ans) m'a fait passer à côté de tout un aspect du livre. Mais le livre est parfaitement compréhensible sans rien y connaître, et ça donne vraiment envie de le lire et de l'étudier.

[Manon Lehaut]

DNF

Je peux pas! Honnêtement, c’est bien trop sombre… Dans « Demain, demain et demain », j’avais absolument adoré ttes ces citations de Shakespeare mais la lumière l’emportait toujours sur la noirceur globale… Ici, on est confrontés à un ancien professeur de littérature qui est atteint d’Alzheimer et est emmené contre son gré dans une maison de retraite. J’ai l’impression de revivre un peu « Le bal des folles » avec cet enfermement et cette infantilisation. (Dans des conditions moins dramatiques mais tout de même) Il nous le dit dès le début  « Nous allons tous mourir. C’est ce qui se passe pendant que nous vivons qui doit compter. » Sauf qu’il est clairement au bout de son existence et nous n’assistons qu’à un terrible déclin!
Je ne critique aucunement la plume, ça me remuait des les premières pages mais c’est pas tenable personnellement !

[Patsy Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awash in Beauty

If there were six stars, I'd give them to this lovely, lovely, sad and beautiful novel. Jean Heglund is so perceptive, so compassionate, and so full of love for her characters that, by the time I had to say goodbye to them, I was awash in love and tears my own self. John is moving slowly and inexorably into Alzheimer's, and his wife has finally decided it's time to do what neither of them wants her to do. His lifelong partnership with the plays of Will Shakespeare fills his mind and his days--until his estranged daughter, she once of the wild purple hair, comes to try to make things right. I feel I know John and Miranda far better than I have earned the right to--and it's all due to Ms. Heglund's mastery of the language and of what it means to be human.

[Julie Benezet · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Elegant, Insightful Story

Still Time follows the mental demise of a devoted Shakespeare scholar as he descends into Alzheimer’s. The book makes use of Shakespearean themes, characters and language that lend a modicum of sanity and guidance to a man as he struggles with his past, present and lack of future. Hegland provides enough explanation of Shakespearean work that even without studying the playwright in any depth, the story is comprehensible.

She also does a masterful job of conveying a mind that is at once confused and lucid. The other people in his life, most notably an estranged daughter, bring meaning to his rambling thoughts and provide compassion for all involved. I highly recommend this book

[Tim Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I've been meaning to read this for ages, since seeing the film version of Into the Forest. This was a deeply moving book, and very scary for those of us who are getting older. It has also made me wonder if I should give reading Shakespeare another go. I love watching the plays but my recent attempt at reading one was a disappointment.

I cried at the ending.

There is an event in this book and Into the Forest that made me wonder about the author's own experiences of life. I hope not.

Sorry this is such a bullet-point review, I'll write more coherently later.