Books, continued

"The Theft of Memory;  Losing My Father One Day at a Time by Jonathon Kozol  Penguin   302 pages   $26

Jonathon's father Harry was a remarkably intuitive clinician who specialized in researching brain reactions.

At age 88, he was formally diagnosed as having Alzheimer's.  He died age 102; s wife at age 103.  She predeceased him and it was believed by staff  and his son that on one level he knew, but did not acknowledge it.

The book is a mix of "saving my father" and a proud list of his achievements.  Being a medical junky I naturally flipped through that part and went straight to the nuts and bolts which consisted of a more or less permanent staff of three and their reactions to his health crisis.  . 

At the end of the book, the father is in the hospital, gravely ill, when his son decides it is time to let him go.  Post-funeral, he laments that he kept him alive so long but admits that he just couldn't lose his Dad. 

This struck me as remarkably selfish considering old Dads was unable to communicate, subject to recurring bladder infections and the other vicissitudes of extreme old age.