"Still Alice" is still sad

Alice Howland, 50 years old, is a Harvard professor who seems to have it all going for her.

She's happily married, has three grown children, and is well respected in her field of psychology. When she first notices how forgetful she's becoming, she first thinks menopause, and then, heaven forbid, a brain tumor. When the diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's comes back she-and her family- are devasated.

Told from Alice's point of view, the reader experiences the gradual reduction of Alice's functions. When she becomes disoriented and can't find her way home from a place she's been to every day for 25 years, she can no longer be "allowed" to go out by herself. An independent person, Alice struggles against herself, but it's a losing battle.

There is a lot of information about the disease, various drugs to combat the symptoms, and coping mechanisms, but in the end, it's a no win situation. I really felt for the other family members having to deal with this disease; Alices' husband John, who sees the career path he envisioned for himself go up in smoke, and Alice's three children, who must choose to know, or not know, if they also carry the gene mutation for early onset Alzheimer's.