...more

emotions they feel in response—anger, frustration, devotion, humor—are inevitable. Though this is primarily an account of the author’s experiences as her mother becomes all but emotionally unrecognizable, it is also a narrative spanning two three generations of complicated family dynamics. Leavitt illustrates significant differences between her mother’s closeness with her sisters and how the disease affects those relationships, and the contrasting tension between the author and her sister. It shows the strains that Alzheimer’s puts on everything—from the sufferer’s well being and sense of purpose to a loving marriage to the physical demands of caring for someone who can no longer care for herself. The narrative is human, honest, loving and occasionally even funny. “I created this book,” Leavitt writes in the introduction, “to remember her as she was before she got sick, but also to remember her as she was during her illness, the ways in which she was transformed and the ways in which parts of her endured. As my mother changed, I changed too, forced to reconsider my own identity as a daughter and as an adult and to recreate my relationship with my mother.” Not simply the story of a disease, but of the flawed, complex, intelligent people whose lives it transformed.”

...more

mother's gradual decline and her family's reaction to it. Her simple line drawings are rarely fascinating in themselves but they serve the story well, capturing facial expressions with subtle brevity and showing the subtext behind brave or cruel words as Leavitt's voice stretches from calm rationalizing to an anguished wail and back. Stark details–accounts of tidying up after a woman whose body is no longer her own and trying to communicate with a mother who can barely recognize her family–are married with warm, funny recollections of Jewish-Canadian life.”

...more

others to learn but the biggest lesson is that it is OK to have reactions, feelings and frustrations that are not always “correct” as one watches a loved-one’s progress. I think that the graphic novel tells the story in a more vivid and personal way than most books could possibly do… I know from my years of experience that the novel will be very helpful to others dealing with Alzheimer’s.”