56 pages • 1 hour read
Lisa GenovaStill Alice
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
May 2004-August 2004Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “May 2004”
Alice stops in the Mount Auburn Manor Nursing Center, where, under the guise of a daughter planning for a parent, she takes a tour of the facilities for Alzheimer’s patients. The woman at the facility compliments her on her butterfly necklace, which was passed down to Alice after Alice’s mother’s death, and which she had only recently begun wearing in casual settings. When they enter the Alzheimer’s ward, a resident demands that Alice give her back her money; the caretaker explains that the woman has a twenty-dollar bill that she keeps hidden, but she also keeps forgetting the hiding place, so she continually believes the bill to be stolen. Eventually, she explains, the woman will forget the bill exists entirely.
The caretaker takes Alice to the common room, where many of the residents are eating lunch. She explains that most of their activities and their meals are taken at the same times daily in that room, as routine is helpful to them. Alice notes that most of the residents are women; one non-resident man, Harold, comes to eat with his wife every day, and apart from him, there are only two men in the ward, who, “reverting to the cootie rules of childhood…[sit] together at their own table, apart from the women” (113). She also notes that, despite the caretaker’s claim that family and friends are always welcome to visit, the only outsider who appears to be there is Harold. She is also told that the average age of the residents is 82, while the youngest resident is 70. Before leaving, Alice quickly calculates that residing there would cost her and John more than $100,000 per year.
Outside, it’s a beautiful spring day, and Alice heads to Ben and Jerry’s, orders a triple-scoop of Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and walks along the Charles River, contemplating future plans. She notes with satisfaction that she is still able to eat her ice cream without dripping any of it “using a lick-and-turn technique that had become automatic to her as a child and was probably stored somewhere near the information for how to ride a bike and how to tie a shoe” (116). She wishes that she had cancer instead of Alzheimer’s because cancer is beatable: “Alzheimer’s disease [is] an entirely different kind of beast. There were no weapons that could slay it. Taking [medication] felt like aiming a couple of leaky squirt guns in the face of a blazing fire” (117).
As she walks, she considers what it is that she wants. She thinks of several things that she does want to experience before the disease entirely takes over, such as holding Anna’s baby, seeing Lydia act, taking another sabbatical year with John, and to “read every book she could before she could no longer read” (118).She notes, with surprise, that that list did not include her profession. She then decides that once she passes the point of being able to enjoy those things, she wants to commit suicide. Realizing that she’ll need to put a plan into place before she gets to that point, she puts a list of questions into her BlackBerry to ask herself every morning, with the instructions that if she has trouble answering any of them, to go to a file on her computer named “Butterfly” containing further instructions.
Later, Alice finds herself running late to class, but is relieved to discover that the class has not yet begun by the time she arrives, as the professor is not yet there. She reviews the syllabus and notes from the last class period. She notes some students acting confused, whispering and giggling, while a student behind her notes that it may be a guest lecturer that day, but Alice notes that there’s nothing about that on the syllabus. She recalls that the formal rule is that students must wait twenty minutes for the professor to show before leaving, but that no one wants to be the first to leave. Unafraid, she decides to be the first, and interprets the students’ reaction as gratefulness.
Chapter 10 Summary: “June 2004”
Alice returns to Dr. Moyer on her own. She explains, falsely, that she is having trouble sleeping; Dr. Moyer points out that insomnia is a side effect of Aricept, one of her Alzheimer’s medications, and Alice points out that she isn’t going off Aricept. Dr. Moyer suggests an antidepressant, which Alice also rejects, claiming—again, falsely—that she is not depressed. The doctor then suggests Restoril, but Alice requests something stronger, prepared to fight for it if she must. After a moment’s hesitation, Dr. Moyer concedes.
Back at the neuropsychologist’s office, Alice is unable to remember her last name. Sarah again asks her a series of basic questions; Alice does well with some, but struggles to remember the word hammock on the Boston Naming Exam, which she remembers as “the napping net.” She performs well on several other tests, but is then unable to recall the details of a story she was asked to read earlier. As with earlier tests, Sarah turns the open-ended questions into multiple-choice ones and asks Alice to guess; however, Alice is not told if she gets the questions right or not, leaving her to wonder if she remembered the story without realizing it.
John is already waiting in Dr. Davis’s office, where he is reviewing the Activities of Daily Living questionnaire with Dr. Davis. While describing her recent lapses, she mentions the night she went to the office without realizing it was the middle of the night, which irritates John, who wasn’t aware of the incident. Dr. Davis suggests that Alice purchase an Alzheimer’s Association ID bracelet to wear at all times; Alice resists, but John says she’ll get one. Dr. Davis also suggests that John begin running with her, as exercise has been shown to help, but it isn’t safe for Alice to go running alone. Further, he suggests that she figure out a way to transition out of her position at Harvard. Finally, he asks if she would like to donate her brain to science after her death, and she says that she would.
They move onto her exam. She is again asked to remember John Black’s address. After several more questions, she is asked to draw a clock showing a time of 3:45. At first, she draws the clock too big, and all the numbers end up on one side; she scribbles it out and writes “3:45” instead. Dr. Davis tells her he needs her to draw an analog clock, at which Alice becomes frustrated, telling him that she’s never been good at drawing. When she looks to John for support, John sides with Dr. Davis, which stuns and irritates Alice. Finally, they go back to John Black’s address, which Alice cannot remember.
After discussing options for experimental treatments, they settle on two options: Amylix, which is in trials, and IVIg therapy, which is “crude” but has shown modestly positive results. If Alice enters the Amylix trial, she may end up in the controlled placebo group, but if she decides to go on IVIg therapy, she’ll be ineligible for the Amylix trial, so she has to choose between the two. John, preferring the safer, modest results, argues for IVIg therapy along with two other treatments in combination. Alice, however, chooses the Amylix trial.
Chapter 11 Summary: “July 2004”
Alice and John go to Chatham, on Cape Cod, where they like to spend time in the summer. It is evening, and she is unsure where John is, so she wanders the house using clues to try to figure out where John might be, and if he is gone for the evening or not. The lack of routine in Chatham makes it hard for Alice to keep track of time, and she finds that she’s never sure of what time it is or what she is meant to be doing.
She leaves a note for John that she’s going to the beach. The beach is deserted, so she strips naked and enters the water, all except her ID bracelet, which reflects the moonlight of the clear night. She considers the fact that she could commit suicide by simply swimming out too far. As she treads water, she feels “alive and happy”; soon, John approaches, and without speaking, strips naked and enters the water with her (146).
Later, Alice finds John to double-check when he is leaving for the Ninth International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, and when Lydia, who will be performing with a local theatre company, will arrive; she is told that Lydia will arrive on Sunday, and John is leaving on Monday. John asks if she’s ready for her run. She goes upstairs to get another layer, but on her way back pours herself an iced tea and goes out to read on the back porch. John finds her and asks again about the run; Alice says yes, they’re going, and asks again when the conference is and when Lydia will arrive. She says she needs to pee before they leave, but when she stands to do so, forgets what she stood up for. When she’s about to leave, she remembers, but is unable to find the bathroom. Frantic, she can no longer hold her bladder and urinates herself. John holds her, tells her it’s okay, and takes her back upstairs to get changed.
John leaves for the conference, leaving Lydia detailed instructions which sound, to Alice, “very much like the ones they had delivered to their teenage babysitters before leaving the kids for weekends away,” realizing that she now must be watched by her own daughters (151). Lydia and Alice walk down to the Chatham Lighthouse. Alice apologizes for missing Lydia’s play in California, and Lydia says she knows it was because of John this time. They see two girls in University of Massachusetts sweatshirts, and Alice again begins to push for college, reflecting on how wonderful her own memories of college are; however, when Lydia asks her to stop, she does. Her thoughts then drift to receiving the news of her mother and sister’s death, which we learn occurred shortly after they had left a visit with her.
Later, Lydia cleans the house while she and Alice wait for John to get back. Alice asks Lydia where John is, and Lydia tells her that he’ll be home any minute. She then asks where Anne is; Lydia at first believes she means Anna, Lydia’s sister, and reminds her that Anna is in Boston. When she repeats “Anne,” though, Lydia is forced to remind her that Anne (Alice’s sister) and Alice’s mother died in a car crash a long time ago. Alice is shocked and furious. When John arrives home a moment later, Alice doesn’t understand why John isn’t upset as well; she decides that John has known about this and kept it from her, and that she cannot trust him.
Chapter 12 Summary: “August 2004”
Alice, Lydia, and John are eating breakfast together. Alice is more lucid again, and she is deeply concerned about the fact that she could completely forget that her mother and sister had died so long ago. She notes that Lydia’s conversation is primarily directed at John. She struggles to keep up with conversations now; while she can still follow along, she is unable to participate. She finds that she cannot remember the name of the “white butter” that goes on bagels (159); she gets John to pass it to her, and though she knows what it will taste like, she cannot bring herself to eat it until she recalls the name. As she stares at it, Lydia reminds her that it’s called cream cheese.
Lydia and John are discussing her time with the local theatre group; Lydia tells John that she had initially been nervous because the actors all had experience in top-notch programs at schools like NYU and Yale. Alice again brings up the prospect of college, asking her what she thinks about getting a degree in theater. This again leads to a disagreement, but when Alice tells her that getting a degree might open up networking possibilities for her, Lydia agrees to talk to the actors in the theater group and consider it. Lydia then asks her what it’s like to have Alzheimer’s; as they discuss, Alice is happy that they’ve found something else they can talk about.
Later, when Alice wakes up from a nap with no one home, she tries to resume Sense and Sensibility, but isn’t in the mood to do so. She wanders the house and into Lydia’s bedroom, where she peruses her bookshelf full of plays and thinks that plays might be better for her to read, as they are shorter and easier, plus reading plays would give her something to talk about with Lydia. She sees Lydia’s journal, as well, and is unable to resist leafing through it.
John returns home with gifts. At first, Alice thinks he has bought a new copy of Moby-Dick to replace the one she can’t find, but he has instead bought her DVDs for them to watch, believing they might be easier for her to follow. They decide to watch The Sound of Music. When she goes to make popcorn in the microwave, she discovers Moby-Dick inside.
Later, on a run with John, she briefly considers telling him that she can run the route alone, but when they come to a fork in the road, she realizes she would have ran the wrong way. She feels thankful for his effort. Back home, she sits down with Lydia at breakfast to discuss Angels in America; she had been right in her thought that this would give her something to discuss with her daughter. However, she slips when she asks Lydia what it was like performing a particular scene with Malcolm, which she had read in Lydia’s journal. Furious, Lydia storms out and doesn’t return. That evening, Alice and John watch King Lear, and Alice falls asleep on the couch; later, when she goes to bed, Lydia’s journal is on her pillow.
Anna, Charlie, and Tom all arrive to attend Lydia’s play; Anna and Charlie announce that Anna is five weeks pregnant, as well, leading to a round of congratulations. The conversation turns to the play when Alice asks what time the play goes on. She tries to schedule it in her BlackBerry, but Tom argues that she shouldn’t worry about it because they’ll all be there to take her and that she should be exercising her memory, anyway; Anna similarly argues that she should focus and not “get lazy” (172). Lydia argues that she should enter it in, though, so that she doesn’t have to worry about remembering.
The next day, at the theater, Alice becomes absorbed in the play, Proof, in which Lydia plays Catherine. Following the play, Catherine comes over to the family. Alice tells her that she was brilliant, then asks if they’ll get to see her in anything else and if she is just there for the summer season. Catherine tells her that she’ll be heading back to Los Angeles, but that she’ll “be back this way a lot to visit with [her] family” (174). Anna then reminds Alice that Catherine is her daughter, Lydia.
“May 2004”-“August 2004” Analysis
The nature of reality becomes an important theme through these chapters as Alice begins to lose her grip and her lucidity. First, Alice visits the nursing home, but adopts the persona of a caring child rather than telling the caretaker that she is looking for herself. One possible interpretation of this is that she is simply embarrassed, but another is that she is taking on a role that she would like fulfilled. Alice resents the loss of respect she feels when she speaks with her doctors—even if she acknowledges that the lines of questioning are warranted—and she fears being pushed aside as she grows worse. (It doesn’t help that she had already felt pushed aside by John even before her diagnosis.) Her visit is not a good one, though, as she sees a room full of people ready and able to take visitors who would rather not come.
Following the nursing home, we see Alice confuse her role in the classroom, as well, believing falsely that she is a student. Her role reversal in the nursing home is subtle, but apparent; in the classroom, it is far more concrete, as she reverts completely to that role, even perusing the syllabus, checking her “notes” from the previous class, and making snide remarks about the professor—herself—to her “classmates.” This theme recurs throughout the novel: we last saw it on the day she received her diagnosis, when she considered the similarities between Dr. Davis’s tests and both the exam her students were taking at that moment and the kinds of tests her graduate students would run, noting that in those tests she used to be the control, not the subject.
Further, as the summer progresses and her own mental state deteriorates, Alice moves first from the nonfiction of her professional life, to the fiction she never had time to read, then finally to drama, both as a way to grow closer to Lydia and because plays are easier for her to follow. Still, though, the nature of a play is the audience’s immersion in a new, different reality—the one on the stage. As Alice loses her grip on reality, she becomes more intrigued with this immersion and grows closer with Lydia as a result. Toward the end of the summer, for the first time, she has the opportunity to see Lydia act, and she becomes so immersed in the experience that she forgets who Lydia is. It’s worth noting, as well, that Lydia is the only one who goes along with Alice’s specific needs and fluid handle on reality—she doesn’t even bother correcting Alice when Alice forgets her—and the only one who seems interested in Alice’s experience from her own perspective.
As reality becomes more fluid, time plays a more prominent—and sinister—role in Alice’s life. Her visit to the nursing home establishes the need for routine, which is both meant to anchor the patients to time, but also impossible without a good sense of time; later, on the Cape, this loss of routine could possibly be interpreted as a catalyst for her further, and more rapid decline. In the classroom, Alice’s attempt to ingratiate herself with the students she is unaware are hers is to imply that the professor’s lateness is a waste of her time. Most importantly, though, when meeting with Dr. Davis, it is his request to draw a clock that humiliates and infuriates her, not only because of her inability to draw one, but also because her plea to John to support her assertion that she is just bad at drawing goes unanswered, reinforcing the loneliness she feels as the disease progresses. In all of this, though, we must remember that our perspective is Alice’s, and we’re told early on that that perspective will grow increasingly unreliable.
Lastly, while Alice had previously felt suicidal, we get the first clear indication that Alice is willing to end it outright if her Alzheimer’s ever gets too bad. Of course, unlike other diseases, her weakening grip on reality makes it unclear if she’ll ever be able to follow through—how will she carry out a plan that requires her to be able to understand her reality? The prescription Alice gets from Dr. Moyer becomes a Chekhov’s gun in the novel—she has the mechanism and desire to end her own life, so we are pushed toward that conclusion as inevitable, creating another layer of tension in the text.
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