A Fictional Story about Huntington's Disease?

The story opens with something that anybody with exposure to Huntington's Disease can understand...

 A police officer cannot find his gun. He swears that he took it out of the safe and put it in the holster but it isn't there. Why not? What happened? His wife moved it on him. He knows she did. And she has been doing things like that a lot lately. Finally, he finds it, makes accusations at his wife and even looses his temper in the process. But he doesn't understand why and the family is scared. He is even more scared when he looks and sees his mother's glossed over eyes looking back at him. His mother was in the mental hospital because she was a drunk. However, he never drank so it must be his imagination. His mom died when he was just 11 years old so he had no idea what was really wrong with her. 

Fast forward seven years. The forgetfulness has gotten worse, his temper is more erratic he has a hard time sitting still. He has problems walking a lot of the time and his mind seems all jumbled and uncoordinated at times. Others have noticed it, too. Even his friends have started to wonder if he has drinking problem or something. He finally decides to humor his wife and goes to the doctor. What he learns at the doctor will forever change the lives of his entire family.

And so begins the story of Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova. 

Lisa Genova is a graduate of Harvard with a doctorate in Neuroscience. She already has three critically acclaimed books about the brain. One about a lady with a traumatic brain injury - Left Neglected, the story of a boy with non-verbal autism - Love Anthony, and the story of a family as it deals with the diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease - Still Alice. Still Alice was made into a movie, too. I haven't read any of these but have heard that Still Alice is a wonderful true to life story of what families go through - from the diagnosed person to the people caring for that person. Her latest book - Inside the O'Briens - has been said to be transcendent in its story of a family dealing with the diagnosis of Huntington's Disease. 

I approached this book with some skepticism. In the past, the exposure of Huntington's Disease in the main stream world hasn't been the best. It is usually glossed over or gets all of 5 minutes mention in a TV show. Not necessarily the best representation of what Huntington's Disease really is. So, I was really apprehensive about this book.

One page in, I was hooked.

I could tell that it was going to be a wonderful story and from the get go, it was obvious that Ms. Genova had spent some serious time with a family dealing with Huntington's Disease. She took time to understand the intricacies of the disease and how it affects not only the person diagnosed but the family, too. The story is told from the perspective of Joe and his daughter, Katie. Lisa has done a very good job of showing the struggles of the entire family. There is the workings of Joe's mind before the disease and the concerns of his wife who can tell that something is not right. Then, what happens after the diagnosis has been made - from telling the family to knowing that you have possibly passed on this awful disease to your children.  From Katie's side, you get to see the struggle of a someone who is "At Risk" and whether or not to get tested and if you really want to find out the results of the test.

I'm not going to lie. This story is sad at times and you will probably shed a few tears, but it is full of happy moments, the love of a family as they all come together and triumph for everybody in the family as the begin to accept the inevitable but refuse to let a diagnosis rule their lives. It is a definite must read.