A few reviews of Beckon and Alzheimer's - Truth is more compelling than fiction - CSFF Blog Tour

Julie again. If you didn't see it, my review of Beckon published yesterday evening! (Not without difficulties.)

Alternatively, I agreed with almost everything in Jessica Thomas' review.
I LOVE Shannon McDermott's thoughts on character deaths (here) and her first paragraph of her first review post had me laughing out loud.

Moving on! In Tom Pawlik's Beckon, one of the point of view characters, George, is a man desperately seeking to get his wife back, while he's losing her to Alzheimer's.  I don't feel like it's a bad portrayal, but I couldn't get out of my mind an article I'd read on the BBC website recently.

One of the people described is an engineer husband caring for his wife, who has Alzheimer's.  The husband optimistically noted that his wife--who was not as far gone as George's, granted--still had about 30% of her personality left. He shows patience where George shows nothing but frustration and desperation.

The whole article is sad, detailed, and fascinating. Interestingly, it ends with the journalist's own version of hope...perhaps more gentle and optimistic than the work of fiction that made me remember it.