This novel really hit home with me. I think anyone who has experienced a family member with Alzheimer's would find value in this story. Not only does it share one way an Alzheimer's diagnosis affects a person and their family/caregivers, but it also explores feelings of guilt that people hang on to deep into their lives, even if the reason they feel guilty was actually beyond their control. A quote from the book summarizes it really well. "'I was convinced it was my fault. Like I said, guilt is conniving. It befriends your ego and tries to convince you that everything's about you - the past, the future. But it's just not true. The only thing we ever have is the present, and we do the best we can with it.'"
Cricket is a 27 year old that is a lost soul. She quits her job suddenly after acknowledging that she simply can't do it anymore. She has been at her boss's beck and call for the last two years and it's far from meaningful to her. She is a college dropout who blames herself for the death of her (former) boyfriend when they were 16 years old. She is drifting through life. She hasn't been to her hometown for ten years, and there is a disconnect between her and her parents, as well as her sister, Nina, even though they all communicate with each other. Cricket & Nina's father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and Nina has spent the last four years living with him and taking care of him. (Their parents divorced four months after the death of Cricket's boyfriend, so that just adds to Cricket's feelings of guilt. She blames herself for that too.)
Nina is offered a job of a lifetime in Sweden so she tells Cricket that they need to move their dad into a memory care home. Cricket has to return to her hometown in the Adirondacks to tour the options. Once there, Cricket makes the decision to stay and take care of their father on her own. Nina is definitely skeptical, to say the least. Nina is the responsible, disciplined, detail-oriented, controlled older sister. Cricket is the lost, free spirit. Since Nina only plans to stay in Sweden for a year, or possibly two, they both see this as an opportunity to allow their father to stay in his home a bit longer though. So, the plan is made.
This is a story about people's hearts "regenerating". "...[M]aybe our hearts don't ache because they're scarred or broken or because something is wrong. Maybe they ache because they are shape-shifting." Our hearts make us, "quake with change". "Not our final selves, or our best selves, or even our improved selves, but just our next selves." People don't need to be told what their future holds for them. They need to be told what their future could hold for them. Wonderful story.
Wendy's Rating: *****
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