In 1993 Linda Grant's mother, Rose, was diagnosed with multi-infarct dementia. With Roses's memory deteriorating, a whole world was in the process of being lost. In this work she looks at the question of identity, memory and autonomy that dementia raises.
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From Publishers Weekly
Grant first charted her mother's decline into senile dementia in an article for the Guardian (U.K.). In response to a flood of readers' letters and her own need to examine her extended family history, she expanded that article into this moving account of second-generation Anglo-Jewry, published last year in England. Dual themes of memory and identity underlie the sad account of her mother's illness, which also becomes a metaphor for the lost history of an immigrant family. The family's roots in Eastern Europe were effectively destroyed, not only by the Holocaust but also by the family's desire to remember selectively, and not always truthfully, the story of its past. As a child, Grant thought family stories a bore; now she regrets her lack of interest and lost opportunities to know more about her parents. She chronicles her mother's decline with unflinching honesty, revealing her guilt and impatience with her mother's condition and her failings as a daughter. With nostalgic humor, she looks back on the experiences of her large, extended family of observant Jews who settled in a country where anti-Semitism, while not as virulent as in the Poland they had left, was not unknown. As her mother's condition deteriorates, Grant and her sister come to the painful decision to place her in a nursing home. While there is no upbeat ending to Grant's story, she affirms that people can react with dignity and sensitivity to the inevitable tragedies of old age. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Linda Grant is the author of The Clothes On Their Backs, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Still Here, which was longlisted for the Booker; The Thoughful Dresser; and When I Lived in Modern Times, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Prize.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Hardcover
This book was recommended to me by my niece in the UK, whose mother (my sister) suffers from Multi-infarct dementia. The book was informative but I felt too biographical with too much emphasis on the author's ethnic and family background. Regardless, it deals with a difficult subject about which I fear most of us know too little. I would recommend it to those with aging parents who may well require their intervention at some point.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the Read
May 25 2000
By billski
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I listened to Linda Grant on National Public Radio, Fresh Air program yesterday. Very interesting and moving.
I can relate to it as my father went thru a similar decline over a 3 year period. He suffered from TIA "mini-strokes" that slowly diminish selected brain capabilities, many times without the victim's or family's knowledge. Linda relates a similar experience. It's frustrating in not ever really knowing what is going on inside his ticker when you speak. It's frustrating to know that each person loses different capabilities at different times. It drags you down, with everything seeming so one-sided. It's frustrating that modern medicine is essentially powerless to stop this degeneration, with no effective tools or strategy.
Linda is much more articulate than I could be in describing the same experience I went through.
If it does nothing more, it gives those of us a comparative basis by which to judge our own decisions in similar circumstances.
For those who have been thru this, it gives us someone to relate to. For those who have not, it prepares you. As a boomer, I've finally graduated to what I call 'adulthood': where we are sandwiched between two generations who both depend upon us. Calling the experience overwhelming only begins to describe it.
Worth the read.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
beautiful and sad
May 25 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
If you've ever had a relative or loved one slip away into dementia, this book will strike home. And if you've had a friend going through this experience, this book will help you to understand what they are going through. This book, like the experience of living with dementia, is at times funny, at times tearful. It's an honest picture of what it's like to be with someone who is rapidly losing who they were.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and honest memoir
Jun 13 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book after hearing the NPR interview with the author, because a close friend was coping with a similar situation (mother slipping into dementia, angry outbursts, fighting to get out of nursing home). This book is a fascinating portrait of the author's parents, their good points and bad. Very readable. I didn't want to put it down.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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