WE ARE NOT OURSELVES by Matthew Thomas (fic)

Currently a best seller, this first book by Matthew Thomas takes its title from a line in King Lear, and is loosely autobiographical, taking 10 years to write.
"We are not ourselves/When nature, being oppressed, Commands the mind/To suffer with the body."

The story encompasses three generations of an Irish American family in Queens, but mostly is told from the point of view of Eileen Tumulty, a child of the 40s and 50s and her working class childhood.  Possessing a keen mind and a drive to better herself, Eileen worked to obtain a graduate degree in nursing administration and carved out a successful career.  Eileen is intelligent and strong-willed and wanted her share of the American dream along with a successful husband.  What she got was Edmund Leary, a handsome and serious nerd.  Ed is a scientist and brain expert, but he is a man of small ambition, turning down not only an offer from Merck, but also the Deanship of his university which would have led him to the eventual Presidency of the college.  Ed was happy to continue teaching and researching the effect of psychotropic drugs on neural pathways.  Despite Eileen's disappointment in Ed, the couple continue to have a deep and abiding love for each other.  They have one son, Connell, who comes into his own in the second half of the book.  Presumably he is a stand-in for the author.

Perhaps Ed's choice of study was a presentiment of the early onset Alzheimer's which befell him at age  51.  After Ed's diagnosis, Eileen puts all her energy in keeping life as normal as possible for Ed.  This includes keeping his condition private from his colleagues and friends as long as they can.  It is at this point the reader begins to see the struggle ahead and how this disease can drain a family not only mentally and physically but also eat away at a lifetime of savings and pensions and health insurance.  The United States is not an easy place to have a catastrophic illness.  Eileen always in control finds herself fighting a battle against the illness and the system which can bleed a family dry.  Here is Eileen at her best, a tiger mother and wife.  She reminds me of Colm Toibin's Nora Webster, another strong and stern Irish woman whose love of family becomes warrior-like when challenged.

This is not an easy read because of the subject matter and the deterioration of a strong mind.  But, the abiding love of family and one woman's fight to preserve a way of life that is important to her shines through to the end.  The book is beautifully written and would be a good choice for a reading group with much to discuss and think about.  I recommend it as a good read about a serious subject.