Iris learns that her great-aunt Esme is being released from a mental institution. The only problem, Iris didn't even know that she had a great-aunt, that her grandmother had a sister. The story of Iris and Esme is told through bits and pieces. It's not so much told, it's more like it unfolds. A bit gothic, a bit mystery, a bit of a love story. I really can't describe it. It's just very good. ( )

I'm sorry to say it, but this was the absolute worst thing I've read this year.

After skimming through several synopses, I was eager to read a story purportedly about a woman afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. I was curious about how the author would treat this sensitive topic and wondered what insight she might be able to offer regarding the disease, how it unravels the mind, and how it affects the millions of people who are forced to live and die with such a frightening and bewildering illness.

So many times throughout the leading pages, I didn’t think I would be able to finish this book. I suppose it was my guilty conscience that tricked me into reading it through to the end, though it took a few more attempts than I care to admit.

The writing that was contained within the first fifty pages was so larded with relentless, meaningless, floridly descriptive bunk that the story just barely slogged along. As if to add insult to injury, so few of the details presented could be supported by logic. Try as you might, you will not get a spoon to “slide along a carpet” if it is first “dropped in a straight line, bounces once off its curved end, and does a somersault in the air.” A letter e “heavy with ink” does not form a “semi-circular heart” no matter how you look at it. And unless he has three arms, a man will not be able to “look about the marquee with an air of calm assurance as he sips his champagne, as he waves at someone, as he passes a hand through is hair.” Really, how does someone interpret all that unnecessary movement as an “air of calm assurance?”

I was inundated. The assault got so frustrating that I had to stop reading.

Pressing myself to continue with this book was an unwise decision. I never did forget that I was reading long enough to truly experience any of the story’s unfolding events. To be perfectly candid, the way the events were described didn't make much sense, either. Iris was a second main character. Iris was walking a dog when she decided to kick over and spill an abandoned beer can. Iris continued walking and picked up the mail as she walked into her shop. Iris began reading the mail. Iris stopped reading the mail as she suddenly remembered she had “detergent” ready in the back room, waiting for her to clean up the beer she spilled. Wait...what?

I suppose the writing did improve, but only slightly and very gradually, seemingly as the author became more focused on explaining the drama of her characters' lives than on proving her literary merit. Unfortunately, both of these efforts were spectacular failures.

I was desperate to learn more about Esme, but was surprised that, until halfway through the book, the story was about Iris. Each of the characters were of plasticine quality. None of them behaved according to the way they were described, and several were identified only by name and with whom they were sleeping. A somewhat-incestuous and adulterous relationship was made a prominent feature, though I’m still uncertain of how it fits into the story. It did nothing to help me relate to any of the characters and otherwise seemed to serve no purpose. Like so many other ludicrous details, it was just there.

Esme was the only character I was interested in. I was actually afraid the author would ruin her, too, as soon as she got around to describing her. It wasn’t any single description that ruined Esme so much as how inconsistently her creator treated her.

The only way I learned about Esme was through a randomly interposing soliloquy. Esme wasn’t the one afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Her sister, Kitty, was. Kitty was never incorporated into the story, except to recount the events leading up to Esme’s hospitalization. According to the way she remembered it, Esme was, at the age of sixteen, unfairly locked away in an asylum full of nasty doctors. Her flagrant nonconformity combined with her reaction to a tragic event contributed to her parents’ decision to admit her.

Esme’s medical chart vaguely explains her earlier behavior with diagnoses of an unnamed personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder, making it seem even more plausible that she had careless doctors. If she was taken away sane, she must’ve come unglued while in the hospital, because her behavior following her discharge was altogether psychotic; calm, cool, and collected up until making a final, tragic decision.

It’s a shame that all the tragic events and tragic decisions in this story were rendered ineffectual by weak and unpolished writing. After growing tired of having details spoon-fed to me, and after realizing I didn’t care who was sleeping with whom, tragedy was really all the story had going for itself.

This was just a really bad book. It’s only redeeming quality was that it ended quickly.

I may have misread those synopses, or they might have been misleading. But Alzheimer’s disease had so little to do with this story. Were Kitty mentally sound, it would be of little consequence. Because I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, it took a while for me to reach my conclusion, but I’m convinced and extremely upset that Alzheimer’s disease meant little more to this author than a means to sell a cleverly-disguised romance novel. I find it deplorable to think that anyone would exploit a debilitating medical condition in such a way. (It does happen frequently, and so few people take notice.)

I'll be glad to get this book off my hands. ( )

I had high hopes for this book based on the back cover synopsis. Interesting idea: a neice becomes guardian of an aunt she never knew and in the process learns family secrets. Although I enjoyed parts of the book, I felt the author could have done so much more with the plot and character development. Was anyone else disappointed in the ending? To say I felt unsatisfied when the book ended is an understatement. ( )

Wow, this book really grabbed me from the first, it's a very powerful book on Family relations and how people can be to me; evil, What the Main Character had happen to her and her life really touched me in a profound way, this was not at all a fluff book it's very though provoking and to know that this type of thing actually happened is terrifying, not to give too much away but that the sister ended up with alzheimer's is pretty interesting, maybe she just wanted to forget. (Note: My mother did internships at a psych ward when she was younger and got to read patient files for some of the residents and things in this book did happen in the 40's and 50's accept most that she saw had been lobotomized , you could put a person in and get 30.00 not doctors even needed ) if that doesn't freak you out I don't know what will ( )

I could not put this book down once I started it. The very first part of the book is a bit confusing, but shortly into it everything starts to make sense. Once I figured out what was going on, I was hooked. I felt so sad for Esme. Her whole life was wasted due to the selfishness of her sister and others. I was happy with the way things ended with Esme and Lily, but I was a bit confused by the last few paragraphs. I wish I better understood what happened to Esme in the end. I would like to say a lot more, but I'm trying hard not to spoil this book for anyone else. ( )