Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's : One Daughter's Hopeful Story

Previously published in HC as Dancing With Rose One journalist’s riveting—and surprisingly hopeful— in-the-trenches view of Alzheimer’s Nearly five million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s. Like many children of Alzheimer’s sufferers, Lauren Kessler, an accomplished journalist, was devastated by the disease that seemed to erase her mother’s identity even before claiming her life. But suppose people with Alzheimer’s are not slates wiped blank. Suppose they experience friendship and loss, romance and jealousy, joy and sorrow? To better understand this debilitating condition, Kessler enlists as a bottom-of-the-rung caregiver at an Alzheimer’s facility and learns lessons that challenge what we think we know about the disease. A compelling, clear-eyed, and emotionally resonant narrative, Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’soffers a new optimistic look at what the disease can teach us and a much-needed tonic for those faced with providing care for someone they love.

Lauren Kessler is the author of five works of narrative nonfiction. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, O, the Oprah Magazine, and The Nation. She is the Director of the graduate program in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon.