by Diane Ackerman
This book is another advance reader edition that has apparently been sitting on my TBR shelf since its publication year of 2011 - and was a rather timely read for me.
In 2003, author Diane Ackerman's husband, the author Paul West, suffered a stroke that left him with aphasia, which affects the ability to express and understand written and spoken language. For a couple that made their livings writing and whose recreation included a lot of word play, this was especially devastating.
In lyrical prose, Ackerman writes about the next four years, Paul's rehabilitation and her feelings and concerns as a caregiver. Remarkably, he even regains the ability to write and publish again, and lived to age 85, dying of pneumonia about 12 years after the stroke occurred.
Extremely valuable was a postscript with "Some Lessons Learned." As my elderly mother suffers from a form of neurological deterioration that makes it difficult for her to speak, I really appreciated this. Ackerman had just finished writing An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain before the stroke, The knowledge she gained in her research for that nonfiction book helped her come up with some creative ways to help her husband. The tips she provides are the reason I will be hanging on to the advance reader edition for personal future use, rather than passing it on.
Ackerman also provides a long list of further reading, as well as the 100 nicknames for her that Paul came up with after his stroke, a word play they were able to resurrect.
This book was a finalist for both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012.
© Amanda Pape - 2018
[I will be hanging on to this advance reader edition for a while.]
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