34 ALZHEIMER’S INTO
Once an ignored, overlooked condition, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are in the spotlight like never before, thanks in part to a growing number of books on the subject. But are these books any more
than a new form of ‘mis lit’ and can they really help make a difference? WORDS: PAUL F COCKBURN
In
retrospect, there was a certain inevitability about it. Last November, when the comedienne and former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand announced the winner of
the inaugural Wellcome Trust Books Prize for ‘outstanding works of fiction and non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine’, it seemed only right that it would be a book on the subject of Alzheimer’s.
This is by no means intended as a slight to the quality of the winning book, Andrea Gillies’ Keeper — Living with Nancy, A journey into Alzheimer’s. Jo Brand described the book as “the perfect fusion of narrative with enough memorable science not to choke you,” and “down to earth and darkly comic in places”.
And we agreed: Able magazine, back in our January/February 2010 issue, described the book as “a decidedly subjective and yet authoritative description of Alzheimer’s, lifting the lid on the everyday realities of living with dementia and describing, with an often heart-rending honesty, the emotional strains and trails faced by both Nancy — increasingly losing her memories, identity and understanding of the world around her — and Andrea’s own increasing role as carer and protector.”
MORE JOURNEYS It’s fair to say that publishers are not adverse to jumping onto whatever bandwagon might be passing; if one publisher is lucky enough to find itself with a bestseller, then — no matter the subject — other similar books will follow in the next year or so. While books about Alzheimer’s are still far from
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being two a penny, it’s fair to say that the number which have turned up at Able magazine for review in recent months has increased significantly. It would seem that Alzheimer’s and dementia are the medical conditions that are daring, at last, to say their name.
It helps, of course, that in our celebrity-fixated world, dementia has become linked with people in the public eye. General awareness of the condition has undoubtedly increased since the novelist Sir Terry Pratchett went public about his diagnosis with ‘early onset Alzheimer’s’. Around the same time, former ITN journalist John Suchet began publicly speaking of his role as a carer for his wife, Bonnie. People ranging from former newsreader Angela Rippon and Tony ‘Baldrick’ Robinson to the acerbic columnist AA Gill have all spoken about how dementia affected their parents — yes, Alzheimer’s can affect celebrities too.
FIRST PERSON THIRD Books about dementia invariably have one thing in common; they are never written from the point of view of the person with the condition, particularly once it is well advanced. They can’t be. For, as John Suchet is the first to point out, the one person who doesn’t know about his wife’s Alzheimer’s is... his wife. Even now, several years later, he can’t even be sure Bonnie really understood the diagnosis; if it existed at all, her awareness was quickly lost alongside so many other memories. “It really is as if this wretched disease might have one redeeming quality,” Suchet wrote. “It is protecting Bonnie from understanding what is happening to her.”
But, for Suchet, that was small consolation as he realised he was “slowly but unstoppably” losing
JOURNEYS
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