Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

After reading Still Alice (Genova’s first novel) for book club last April, I was pretty excited when I was contacted by the publisher and offered a review copy of Left Neglected.

Sarah Nickerson, mother to three, has a high stress life and she loves it.  She spends most of her spare time working at her extremely demanding job, even her commute.  One morning, while multitasking in the car her attention is turned from the road for just a second and she crashes.  The accident leaves her with a condition called Left Neglect as a result of an injury to the right side of her brain.  Sarah no longer perceives information from the left.  She is also unaware of her left side.  She knows she has a left side but she just can’t find it.  And for the most part she isn’t even aware of her missing left side.  The rest of the story is about her struggle to rehabilitate her brain and basically her life.

I have to admit, the book started out slow and I didn’t love the writing style but it grew on me and the story definitely picked up after the accident.  I think partly the reason I didn’t like the book at the beginning is because I just didn’t understand her lifestyle.  She worked so much and spent so much time stressing about her job and I just couldn’t relate to that.  (I used to work as a high school science teacher and with two kids that was too much for me so I quit. Sarah did have a full time nanny but still.)  Anyway, after the accident, Sarah was forced to give all that up and rely on her family and therapists to her her get dressed and walk down a short hallway – a huge change for her.  Her estranged mother shows up out of nowhere and insists on helping Sarah and ends up becoming a huge part of her life.  I really liked that part of the book.  I know there are lots of people out there that don’t talk with their mothers but my mom is one of my best friends and it made me happy that Sarah was able to reconnect with her mother.

I liked the characters in this book, they were all so real.  There were times when I thought Sarah’s husband, Bob,  was being kind of a jerk and it bothered me, but then I realized that that was probably pretty realistic.  He actually was a really great guy and dealt with the huge change to his life quite well.  Sarah herself was also a good character.  For the most part she was pretty determined to overcome her condition but she got discouraged and cried just like most people would. But she was always able to get herself back on track, usually with the help of her mother.

It was also interesting to read about her recovery.  This is a little spoiler but she doesn’t ever fully recover by the end of the book. She is able to come to terms with it and make a new life for herself.  I like that although at the end she wasn’t back to normal, she was happy with where she was and what she was doing with herself and her family.

Probably the most interesting thing about this novel was reading about Left Neglect.  I’d never heard of this condition before (although I believe my great-grandmother may have had it after she had a stroke when I was much younger).  I can’t imagine what it must be like to live life without left.  And to not even be aware that it’s missing until you try to walk or something.  That’s what I like about Genova’s books.  She tells a good story but she also opens up my eyes to a condition that I’d never really thought about too much before (or even heard of).

I do have one tiny little complaint though.  I really don’t like Genova’s writing style.  It’s not bad, it’s just not for me.  It kind of feels more like she’s writing a report or something rather than a novel.  But it wasn’t cold or unemotional just maybe a little too technical feeling.  Anyway, I got used to it and I liked the book and I will definitely read another one if she writes one!