Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #696273 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-22
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .44 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"Whoever said love is stronger than death was full of malarkey," comments Cooney, setting the forthright tone early in this honest account of taking care of a parent with Alzheimer's. In 1997, Cooney (The Court of the Lion: A Novel of the T'Ang Dynasty) and her companion, Mitch, both freelance writers, moved Cooney's 75-year-old mother, novelist Mary Durant, from her home in Connecticut to live near them in Northern California when it became clear that her mother's short-term memory was failing. A great admirer and loving daughter of her elegant, witty mother, Cooney suffered from terrible grief because she could not protect her mother from encroaching dementia. Durant's metamorphosis into a dependent, childlike hypochondriac occurred some years after the death of her husband. Cooney vividly describes the everyday physical and emotional stresses on her and Mitch, once her mother moved in with them, and highlights the lack of available resources for Alzheimer's patients who are not independently wealthy. Cooney and Mitch missed writing deadlines, began to drink heavily and nearly ended their relationship. When they could no longer manage her mother at home, Cooney placed her in several unpleasant assisted living residences, until Cooney managed to find her a reasonable place. A short story by Mary Durant is appended to this well-written, harrowing memoir.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Cooney has explored ancient China in novels like The Court of the Lion, but here she considers a current reality: her own novelist-mother's incapacitation by Alzheimer's.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Cooney's angry and unsparing look at the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease on a loved one and the havoc it wreaks on the immediate caregivers is made all the more poignant by the fact that the victim is her mother, the novelist Mary Durant. Cooney and Durant's bond was very strong; they truly liked one another and were very close friends. Durant was glamorous and witty, and she didn't suffer fools or anyone else's foolishness, for that matter, gladly. Cooney lets us slowly witness her mother's mental functions disintegrate, and she pulls no punches in depicting the painful process of the parent becoming the child and the child the parent. Of course, Cooney, a novelist herself, is a terrific writer. Though her subject matter is bleak, her book is neither sentimental nor depressing. Indeed, she leavens her grief with black humor. Despite the inevitable outcome, readers will want to see what happens next. Consider it a must-read for those dealing with a loved one's Alzheimer's. June Sawyers
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