Certain To Make Many Best Of The Year Lists! But I Warn You, Darlings, It Is Wrenching!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  This may be one of the best books of the year, but it is also one of the most depressing.  I cannot tell you how caught up I was not only in the story of the Learys, but the transition of their Queens neighborhoods, particularly two areas with which I am extremely familiar--Woodside and Jackson Heights.

                                     Eileen Leary is an admirable heroine who is put through a personal Hell of her own, when her beloved husband Ed, a scientist and academic, is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's, in his early fifties.  What I learned, horribly enough, was the younger one gets it, the more aggressive the disease, and the faster it takes one out.

                                      The story is compelling, with some gorgeous passages that show Matthew Thomas' promise as a writer--this is his debut novel, and autobiographical in part, as what happens to Ed Leary happened to his own father!!!!!!!--but there were times it was almost too much to bear.  There were several times, reading on the subway, I found myself crying silently--a reaction books do not often elicit from me.

                                        This is the sort of thing that drives one to Candace Bushnell, darlings!!!!!!!!!!

                                          But it is too good to miss.  If you can handle it, steel yourself. But if you are in situation where a family member or loved one is facing a debilitating illness, I urge you to avoid it--for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!