Ask Lisa Genova! discussion

Hello Lisa,
I read Still Alice about two years ago and it is still one of my favorite books. As I am reading Left Neglected I am overcome by the depth and complexity of your writing. I feel as though I know the characters personally. My question is this: What happens to those people that never recover from this ailment? How does one go about a "normal" life if they aren't aware of half of their body?
Thank you so much for your in depth writing, it is a joy to read. Keep writing!!

Hi Lisa,
I did read your Left Neglected a week or so ago and I wondered why you made Sarah (as well as Alice) extremely successful women? I think I am wondering what was your motivation is choosing the women you did? Would things have been different if these women were uneducated and not career driven?

I did enjoy both stories and appreciate your giving me the opportunity to understand these two illnesses through the eyes of both Alice and Sarah.

Hi Lisa -- I just finished Still Alice and wonder how you determined what an Altzeimers person could be thinking when they can't communicate their thoughts. Its such a horrible thing for the family to deal with. Thank you for writing on such a relavant topic and adding the bits of humor, even though some of the humor wouldn't be funny to the person with Altzheimers! Sorry to not have a Left Neglected question, I haven't read it yet.

hi Lisa, and thank you for taking our questions.

I read Still Alice several months ago, and couldn't wait to pick up Left Neglected, which I just started a few nights ago.

You write with such depth and understanding of the characters thoughts and feelings---do you have any personal experience with family/friends dealing with either Alzheimer's or a traumatic brain injury? Your writing is so believable, that I wonder constantly about what personal experience you bring to these books.

Finally, I'm staff at Bates College...any plans for a return visit to do a book talk on Left Neglected? Let me know if I can help.

Best,
Alison

Hi Lisa,
Left Neglected was a great read. I wonder if your upcoming books will feature Harvard University again. I notice both books noted Harvard. As a note of interest, my husband had a brain injury and had multiple deficits including left neglect, but he was able to overcome it. I'm thinking the newer treatments quite frequently help TBI patients overcome some of the most difficult outcomes of TBI, for instance, the craniectomy (not sure of spelling!) and ongoing rehab. Your thoughts as a neurology specialist?

I wondered the same thing, about Still Alice. Why she made Alice a Harvard instructor in Psychology. It made her more knowledgable of what was going to happen. Things were more predictable. For me, I was a psychology student, and was aware of what happens to her. If it was not someone, that was educated, it would not have made the story as believable. I like the story with her grown children as well.

I agree about Still Alice. The fact that she knew and tried to prepare herself for the worst in the best way she knew how, was heartrending. The scene where she walks into the wrong house and empties the cupboards will stay with me forever! Great writing.

Hi Lisa, I really enjoyed left neglected and could relate to many of the characters. I myself am a neurological physical therapist and have worked almost exclusively with brain injured clients. My question for you is how/why did you decide to have the family unit remain united and so accepting when in my own experience this is not usually the outcome.
Thanks for your time, Jacqui

I have recommended "Left Neglected" to many friends and always get that "what's it about" look when I tell them the title. I refuse to give even the slightest hint of the gist of the story and to a person I am thanked when they finish it. Since I have 3 adopted daughters from China their guess is about an abandoned child. Your strength of character is greatly admired here in Scottsdale.

I tore through Still Alice, and will read Left Neglected next. Alice and the other characters are believable and moving. The book increased my understanding of Alzheimer's and scared me. I've only known it in the old. My mother-in-law was 82 when she first began showing signs. She and my father-in-law were doing well with a wonderful home help caregiver, even though E would hold a book upside down to read it and would try to put on two right shoes. But the volatility I've read is associated with Alzheimer's victims emerged, just a bit at a time, until finally she hit the caregiver. The hospital would not send her home again, so she spent several years in an Alzheimer's care facility, always seeming miserable and barely responsive, until her death at 89. My own mother lived independently and drove until well into her nineties, when she chose to move into an assisted living facility at the lowest level of care. Her mind deteriorated abruptly, and she was asked to leave. My sister found a place for her in the locked part of a care facility, where she was able to have a spacious bright private room with some of her own furniture, excellent attentive care, was put on hospice, and within the year had a seemingly peaceful death. I visited her both when she moved and shortly before her death. While she was diagnosed as having Alzheimer's, I doubt that, and the treatment is the same in the very old regardless of what kind of dementia they have. She actually became more mellow after she was allowed to become bedridden.

There's nothing more I enjoy in reading than discovering obscure, fascinating people, places, and events that rise above their seemingly non-relativity to my life and create in me a new awareness that I can incorporate into my world. Left Neglected was a book that introduced me to a medical condition that I had no knowledge of and, yet, was so close to home in its call to examine the priorities in one's life and, perhaps, effect a rearrangement that, while completely upending the original thought process, worked magic. Thanks, Lisa, on yet another thought provoking wonder!

I have both Still Alice and Left Neglected in my to-read list (not goodreads' to read list because I haven't bought the books yet) because I have personal experience that's related. I hope this group is still active when I read them.

When I was here before, there was more discussion. Now I return, and a lot is missing. What's going on with goodreads.com today?

Rosemary wrote: "Hi Lisa,
Left Neglected was a great read. I wonder if your upcoming books will feature Harvard University again. I notice both books noted Harvard. As a note of interest, my husband had a brain inj..."

Hi Rosemary,

Harvard doesn't make an appearance in my next book, LOVE ANTHONY, which takes place on Nantucket.

So wonderful to hear that your husband has recovered well. Neurosurgery is much less invasive now than it was 10 years ago, which helps with recovery, and therapists have more and more tools for rehabilitation, including things like software and computer "games." Scientist are also understanding more about how the brain can heal and recover after injury and also more about "neuroplasticity," how different parts of the brain can be activated to make new connections and take on new jobs. There is a lot of hope in this field!

Kathy wrote: "There's nothing more I enjoy in reading than discovering obscure, fascinating people, places, and events that rise above their seemingly non-relativity to my life and create in me a new awareness t..."

Thank you so much, Kathy!