When I started this book, I was engrossed and did not want to put it down. However, by the end, all I could think was that the author had been badly misled by his editorial staff. Our book club unanimously hated the book and can not understand Oprah or anyone else recommending it.

Still Alice is a dramatic, emotional, story that our book club was glad that they read, although it was not an easy read. The book tells the story of Alice, a 50-year old Harvard Professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, from Her point of view. The book begins with misplaced items and forgotten words that can be easily attributed to aging, hormones and/or stress. As the book progresses, so does her disease. Alice remains aware, at least to some extent, until almost the very end of the book that she has Alzheimer's and she knows what the disease is taking from her. It is this knowledge and self-awareness that makes some scenes in the book, although compelling, emotionally difficult to read. Interspersed regularly throughout the story are moments where Alice is alone, usually at home or in her office, and the reader's access to her unfiltered thoughts and feelings at those times makes clear the unremitting progression of her disease. However, it is Alice's interactions with her family members, the choices that they each make about how to deal with the progression of her disease, and the effect the disease has on their relationship with Alice, that really move the story forward. At least for our group, it was also the actions/reactions of her family that stimulated the most lively portions of our discussion.

This is a beautifully written story that unfolds on many levels. The story begins with dramatic events in the present, but it is life-changing events in the past that are at the book's heart. Taken on the journey of the two women through whom the story is told, the reader soon realizes that assumptions made about the beginning events are wrong, and that the complexities of the situation are much greater than originally appreciated. It is a tribute to the author that by the end of the book, the reader has been made to look more deeply not only at the issues surrounding the deportation of illegal immigrants but also, more deeply at the assumptions human beings make about each other and the judgments we jump to based on superficial considerations. Through the telling of complex events we are reminded that good people do make bad choices in difficult situations. As for the ending being unsatisfying, I agree that it is not the ending I would have written. But perhaps it is a fitting ending to a book that explores so many uncomfortable issues about which no single definitive conclusion can be drawn.