The Old King in His Exile

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Written in a relaxed and informal manner, Arno Geiger manages to soberly show the ravages on family and loved ones due to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Though stricken by such a terrible long and drawn-out death sentence, his father August, being extremely intelligent and clever, offers several moments of joy, clarity, and fascination with what remains of his shrinking world and love for language. But no longer able to care for their sick father, and finding few caregivers who can actually handle him, they resort to placing him in an “old folks” home. The siblings then proceed to clear out years of clutter from the family home, a house built by show more hand by their father August. Surprisingly, it took two dumpsters to achieve their final goal as August never threw anything away in case one day he might need them. And the many rooms their father occupied throughout his life were now reduced to two he might visit on Sundays and special occasions. In this fine memoir Arno Geiger composes an interesting story about a terrible disease and Geiger’s failure in lessening degrees in getting to know his father as intimately as he determines to. Time will eventually take his father completely from him, but not before a gallant attempt at possibility; to pick up where they left off so many years ago and recapture a deeper meaning to their relationship. Written while his father was still alive, this book is a testament to love and what can still be recovered in its remains. show less

This memoir surprised me so much. It mapped out a new definition of "honest" for me. Most of the time reviewers call a memoir "honest" when it tells everything, every tiny excruciating detail of what (usually bad) thing happened to the memoirist. This writing is honest because of its restraint. It's honest for the way Geiger elucidates his own frequent failings--failing to always be patient with a father with Alzheimers, for example--as being normal, and human. He doesn't blame himself, or defend himself, either. He just records, with loving compassion, what happened between him and his father in his father's last years.

Extraordinary also for the way Geiger interweaves scenes from his father's childhood and early youth and how his show more father's experiences during the war years changed him for life. All of this is presented with great love that is never sentimental or false. Somehow too Geiger has written a book about loss that ends up being a celebration of humanity. show less

The author up with his family in Wolford, Austria. His father always had his quirks, his own way of doing things so when he first started exhibiting strange behavior, the author thought it had to do with stress and the fact that his long marriage to his mother had broken. He freely admits the family was frustrated and sometimes impatient with these new behaviors. It, of course turned out to be much more serious, Alzheimer disease, and the author had to adjust his own thinking, find a new way to have a relationship with his father. He found a way, by entering into his fathers new reality and getting to know and acknowledge the man he now was.

A very heartfelt book, not written at all emotionally, though of course the situation itself show more provides its own emotion. Often humorous, the disease moved slowly, his father often said insightful, and meaningful, things about his life as it was now. An interesting look at how a family pulled together Inman time of crisis, some more understanding than others. We also learn of his fathers past life, how he was as a father, a husband.

A lovingly written homage from a son to a father. show less

A very moving account of the life of Geiger's father as an old man with Alzheimer's. He portrays not only the changes in his father, but also the accomadations the family has to make to deal with the sickness.

Trotz der schrecklichen Diagnose Alzheimer gelingt Arno Geiger ein wunderbares Portrait seines Vaters. Sehr berührende Erzählung.

Arno Geiger hat ein berührendes Werk über seinen an Alzheimer erkrankten Vater geschaffen. Angereichert mit zahlreichen Zitaten beschreibt Geiger in einzelnen Episoden das Zusammenleben (und erneute Kennenlernen) mit seinem Vater während dem von Krankheit geprägten Lebensabschnitt. In Rückblicken lässt er das Leben seines Vaters und die eigene Kindheit Revue passieren.

Das Buch ist ein ruhiges Stück Literatur, Geiger kommt ohne große Höhepunkte aus und fesselt den Leser dennoch. Trotz des ernsten Themas ist es aber kein trauriges, schwermütiges Buch; ganz im Gegenteil, phasenweise strotzt es regelrecht vor Witz und Lebensbejahung. Nicht Mitleid oder Hilflosigkeit angesichts der unaufhaltsam fortschreitenden show more Krankheitsentwicklung stehen im Vordergrund, sondern gegenseitige Liebe, Respekt und die wirklich wichtigen Dinge des Lebens. show less

Nach „Alles über Sally“ findet sich auch „Der alte König in seinem Exil“ auf den Bestsellerlisten. Und das zurecht: Geiger erzählt in einfühlsamer, selbstreflexiver und zwischendurch immer wieder heiterer Form die (Krankheits-)Geschichte seines Vaters und schildert, wie er und seine Familie mit dessen fortschreitender Demenz umzugehen lernt. Weil der Vater sich nicht mehr erinnern kann, arbeitet der Sohn die Lebensstationen auf: 1926 als eines von zehn Kindern im Vorarlberger Wolfurt geboren, Kriegsgefangenschaft, Heirat, Hausbau, Scheidung. Dabei begegnet der Sohn seiner eigenen Kindheit und lernt, dem Vater jenes Verständnis entgegen zu bringen, das er ihm als Jugendlicher versagt hat. „Da mein Vater nicht mehr über show more die Brücke in meine Welt gelangen kann, muss ich hinüber zu ihm“, schreibt Geiger und zeigt mit seinem Text berührend und eindrucksvoll, wie lebenswert das Leben zu sein vermag. show less