Left Neglected

Left Neglected is the second offering from Lisa Genova. She also wrote Still Alice, which I read last year. Genova has a medical background in addition to being an author and really does her research so it's not surprising that as with Still Alice, the main character of Left Neglected deals with a daunting diagnosis.

We start with a very frantic look into the busy life of Sarah Nickerson. Mother of three and VP of the HR and recruiting departments of a large, important consulting company, Sarah works extremely hard to balance all aspects of her life expertly.

Husband Bob is equally as busy and overachieving in his career and helping to raise their three young children. One fateful day, Sarah gets in a car accident that results in a massive brain injury. She survives but has left neglect, an affliction where your brain does not recognize anything on the left that you're seeing or the left side of your body. Sarah's rapidly-paced life comes to a screeching halt as she tries to re-learn even the simplest tasks.

I enjoyed Left Neglected though I'm not sure that I liked it as much as Still Alice. I suppose Left Neglected offers at least a glimmer of hope for Sarah, while Still Alice dealt solely with Alice's crumbling life with dementia. So really, two totally different feelings. Genova paints great characters though which I appreciate. Give this one a try but I'd start with Still Alice.

Rating: * * * 1/2