Turn of Mind

Not sure where I read a blurb on this book, but I had put it on my Hold List at the library.  By the time I returned from Maryland I had floated to the top of the list and am definitely enjoying it.  

 A stunning first novel, both literary and thriller, about a retired orthopedic surgeon with dementia, Turn of Mind has already received worldwide attention. With unmatched patience and a pulsating intensity, Alice LaPlante brings us deep into a brilliant woman’s deteriorating mind, where the impossibility of recognizing reality can be both a blessing and a curse. 

As the book opens, Dr. Jennifer White’s best friend, Amanda, who lived down the block, has been killed, and four fingers surgically removed from her hand. Dr. White is the prime suspect and she herself doesn’t know whether she did it. Told in White’s own voice, fractured and eloquent, a picture emerges of the surprisingly intimate, complex alliance between these life-long friends—two proud, forceful women who were at times each other’s most formidable adversaries. As the investigation into the murder deepens and White’s relationships with her live-in caretaker and two grown children intensify, a chilling question lingers: is White’s shattered memory preventing her from revealing the truth or helping her to hide it?

A startling portrait of a disintegrating mind clinging to bits of reality through anger, frustration, shame, and unspeakable loss, Turn of Mind is a remarkable debut that examines the deception and frailty of memory and how it defines our very existence.

While I certainly have my share of Senior Moments (what did I walk into this room for?!) my thinking has definitely been much foggier since my cancer diagnosis.  We all know that stress can play all sorts of tricks on the body, and this was proved to me back in the 80s when I had my eyes examined not long after I had retired from a very difficult teaching situation.  Turns out my eyes had dramatically improved since my previous exam a year earlier, when the situation at school (mainly due to a new principal) was a nightmare.  One of the long-time teachers there who NEVER spoke up became very vocal at meetings that year, and another teacher (only around 40!) dropped dead of a heart attack just days after school ended in the spring.