{"id":49085,"date":"2022-03-02T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T16:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=49085"},"modified":"2022-02-21T10:59:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T15:59:37","slug":"booklist-backlist-tales-of-dementia-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/booklist-backlist-tales-of-dementia-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Booklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gerda Saunders<\/a>, who wrote Memory\u2019s Last Breath<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2017), an exquisitely bittersweet record chronicling her experiences with dementia, is one of my most beloved friends. We have books in common, in that we find great solace and escape in the (well-)written word. Inspired by our last visit together, here\u2019s a list of illuminating memoirs and novels, in prose and graphic works, about the mysteries of dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Can\u2019t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?<\/a><\/strong> By Roz Chast. 2014. Bloomsbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cartoonist Chast\u2019s 93-year-old mother falls from a ladder, and the rest becomes graphic history. Chast\u2019s father sinks into dementia without his anchor, leaving Chast to navigate the resulting \u201csheer lunacy.\u201d Chast runs the gamut of emotions and reactions from guilt to rage, weeping to advocating, mourning to celebrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Goodbye, Vitamin.<\/strong> By Rachel Khong. 2017. Holt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the ex-boyfriend\u2019s family home isn\u2019t a holiday option anymore, untethered Ruth goes home to L.A. for Christmas. Her mother asks her to stay \u2013 for a year! \u2013 because her father\u2019s forgetful, out-of-character behavior can\u2019t be ignored anymore. His care grows into an all-family challenge in Khong\u2019s gently comical, glorious debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Little Josephine: Memory in Pieces<\/strong><\/a>. By Val\u00e9rie Villieu. Art by Rapha\u00ebl Sarfati. Tr. by Nanette McGuinness. 2020. Humanoids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nurse Villieu meets isolated octogenarian Josephine, who eventually shares memories, sings, dances, talks politics, dresses up, and\u00a0charms until her decline proves inevitable. Artist Sarfati elevates Villieu\u2019s narrative into an irresistible graphic homage to a beguiling, \u201camazingly alive\u201d woman inevitably lost to dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Shadow Life<\/a>.<\/strong> By Hiromi Goto. Art by Ann Xu. 2021. First Second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novelist\/poet Goto makes her stupendous graphic debut in splendid artistic synchronization with Ignatz-nominated Xu. Septuagenarian widow Kumiko sneaks out of an assisted-living facility and moves into a tiny studio to spend her days exactly as she pleases, ignoring her increasingly worried daughters. When death attacks her, she insists \u201cI\u2019m not ready YET!\u201d and impressively eludes its shadow until forgetting, falling, and\u00a0<\/strong>losing her way inspire her to make meaningful reconnections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Stars Are Not Yet Bells.<\/strong> By Hannah Lillith Assadi. 2022. Riverhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assadi\u2019s elegiac second novel unspools through the scattering memories of an aging woman facing dementia. Once upon a time, Elle was madly in love with drifter Gabriel, but her father promised her to Manhattan heir Simon. The new couple relocate to Lyra Island,\u00a0off Georgia\u2019s coast,\u00a0<\/strong>where Simon spends a half-century seeking the source of the offshore \u201cshimmering blue.\u201d As Elle\u2019s future dims, bits and pieces of her past erratically sparkle to reveal her elusive history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Still Alice<\/a>.<\/strong> By Lisa Genova. 2008. Pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Julianne Moore\u2019s lauded performance in the movie\u00a0adaption, Genova\u2019s debut novel introduced renowned Harvard professor Alice living a near-perfect life and celebrating her 50th birthday. Just months later, she\u2019s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Inevitable debilitation looms: \u201cMy yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Swimmers<\/a>.<\/strong> By Julie Otsuka. 2022. Knopf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award-winning Otsuka presents a stupendous collage of small moments that result in an extraordinary examination of the fragility of quotidian human relationships. When a neighborhood pool closes, some never swim again, most notably Alice, \u201ca retired lab technician now in the early stages of dementia.\u201d In Otsuka\u2019s elegiac, devastating masterpiece, Alice\u2019s surprising story becomes a polyphonic reveal through lingering memories.

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Tangles:<\/strong> A Story about Alzheimer\u2019s, My Mother, and Me<\/strong>. By Sarah Leavitt. 2012. Skyhorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leavitt memorializes her mother\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s-induced decline \u201cto record what was happening to her and to our family.\u201d The resulting graphic debut achingly bears witness to the painful consequences of the disease, not only on Leavitt\u2019s beloved mother, but also on the author\u2019s father, her sister, her mother\u2019s older sisters, and herself.

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Turn of Mind<\/a>.<\/strong> By Alice LaPlante. 2011. Atlantic Monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the kitchen wall is taped a large sign: \u201cMy name is Dr. Jennifer White. I am sixty-four years old. I have dementia.\u201d Dr. White was a renowned hand surgeon before she retired. She keeps a notebook in which she records her memories; other family and friends also contribute to the pages. And then her best friend is found dead. What can Dr. White possibly recall?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Wrinkles.<\/strong> By Paco Roca. Tr. by Eric Mena. 2016. Fantagraphics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assisted-living homes provide alternatives when caring for aging parents becomes too much for adult children. Emilio begrudgingly lands in such a facility where his roommate, Miguel, an expert manipulator, becomes Emilio\u2019s guide, enabler, and even his caretaker as his dementia quickly progresses. Wondrous (and weepful), Roca\u2019s graphic title both disturbs and comforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Published<\/strong>: “Feature: Booklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia,” Booklist<\/em>, February 15, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gerda Saunders, who wrote Memory\u2019s Last Breath\u00a0(2017), an exquisitely bittersweet record chronicling her experiences with dementia, is one of my most beloved friends. We have books in common, in that we find great solace and escape in the (well-)written word. Inspired by our last visit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,21,23,6,9513,73,426,312,7243,1036,107,60,20,1893,6535,9510,66],"tags":[1280,9393,6608,6668,8808,6125,75,10159,10,11,10153,7417,9530,51,2343,157,9134,13,7292,9117,9293,39,10154,9115,6126,10157,9529,10155,158,10066,10156,1282,9116,10158],"class_list":["post-49085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese-american","category-european","category-fiction","category-french","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","category-japanese-american","category-jewish","category-lists","category-malaysian-american","category-memoir","category-nonethnic-specific","category-nonfiction","category-palestinian-american","category-repost","category-spanish","category-translation","tag-alice-laplante","tag-ann-xu","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-booklist-backlist","tag-cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant","tag-death","tag-eric-mena","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-goodbye-vitamin","tag-hannah-lillith-assadi","tag-hiromi-goto","tag-identity","tag-julie-otsuka","tag-lisa-genova","tag-little-josephine","tag-love","tag-mental-illness","tag-nanette-mcguinness","tag-paco-roca","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-rachel-khong","tag-raphael-sarfati","tag-roz-chast","tag-sarah-leavitt","tag-shadow-life","tag-stars-are-not-yet-bells","tag-still-alice","tag-swimmers","tag-tangles","tag-turn-of-mind","tag-valerie-villieu","tag-wrinkles"],"yoast_head":"\nBooklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/booklist-backlist-tales-of-dementia-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Booklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gerda Saunders, who wrote Memory\u2019s Last Breath\u00a0(2017), an exquisitely bittersweet record chronicling her experiences with dementia, is one of my most beloved friends. 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