Alice Howland, the protagonist is this fiction novel by Lisa Genova, is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard, well known for her research. As the book begins, Alice has just turned fifty years old, and is celebrating with her husband, a cancer cell biologist, and two of her three children. When at first she starts noticing symptoms; random memory losses of simple words or people's names, she believes she has begun menopause, and makes an appointment with her doctor. During her visit, her doctor makes an appointment for her to have an MRI, leading Alice to believe in the possibility of a brain tumour. That being ruled out on her second visit, she asks to see a neurologist. On the anniversary of the death of her mother and sister in a fatal car crash, her neurologist informs her of her diagnosis; she has early onset Alzheimer's. Alice accepts her diagnosis well, though she blames her father, who had been permanently inebriated towards the end of his life. John, however, goes into complete denial, desperate to find a cure. …show more content…
She was concerned about the quality of her life after her disease had progressed to the point where she could no longer remember her family. Therefore, she decided to take measures by asking herself simple questions via her Blackberry every morning. When she got to the point where she could no longer remember her oldest daughter's name, or where she lived, she planned to overdose on her medication, thus effectively leaving her husband and children without the burden of caring for a woman who didn't even remember her own family. Thankfully, she lost her Blackberry before she could do any harm to