Engaging, honest, and poignant and a worthy addition to the burgeoning Alzheimer’s literature.
A debut memoir that presents a realistic view of the challenges faced by baby boomers responsible for elderly parents.
When it came time for Turner and her husband, Bob, to move his mother, 88-year-old Mollie, into their “dream house” near Orlando, Florida, the author approached the task enthusiastically. Turner, in her early 60s at the time, had always had a close, loving relationship with her in-law. Mollie was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, but the author had taken a seminar and collected information ahead of time, so she was confident that she could provide the sort of nurturing environment for Mollie that Bob’s three sisters no longer could. She had no idea that the experience would knock her totally off her game, setting up an internal battle between “good Sherry” and “bad Sherry” as she tried to overcome frustration and anger. This is the story of the last three years of Mollie’s life and of Turner’s personal struggle to reconcile her own expectations with difficult, day-to-day frustrations. For the author, it became a lesson in humility and acceptance. Her smooth, present-tense, often self-deprecating prose brings readers directly into her moments of triumph and defeat. Even when “bad Sherry” rears her snarky head, readers know that Turner loved her mother-in-law, who was sweet and loved singalongs; she even had total recall of the words and music of her favorite songs. She also skillfully recounted stories from her youth and young adulthood. But Turner also makes her short-term memory issues clear. In one vividly described incident, the author took her in-law to a big-band concert, where she joyfully sang along. But while talking about the concert just minutes later, Mollie said wistfully: “Oh, I would love to have seen that....Can I go with you next time?” The author also tells how she learned to cherish positive moments; as her husband told her, “You can’t make her better....We want her time with us...her last years, to be pleasant; and you are doing all that you can to achieve that.”
Engaging, honest, and poignant and a worthy addition to the burgeoning Alzheimer’s literature.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5355-8124-0
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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