Three Things About Elsie

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon     AudioBook: 10 hrs. 44 mins        Hardback Book:   384 pages           

Elsie and Florence are best friends, have been all of their lives.   They do everything together.   Sometimes Florence gets forgetful but Elsie is always there to say, “Don’t you remember, Florence..” and then Elsie fills in the gaps for Florence.   Elsie always knows what Florence wants or needs they are that close and they have been through so many traumatic ordeals over the years often reflecting on bits and pieces of memories of their early years.    A fun read, very witty and knowledgeable about the elderly and nursing home care and routines.   So many fun conversations and events that I often found myself laughing out loud at what one or the other of the folks,  residents and staff,  in their nursing home do or say.   A very enjoyable read.    It explains a lot in how the mind of a dementia patient works and I found it to be eye opening in its many explorations into the mind of Alzheimers patients.   It makes so much sense of a tangled sometimes irrational disease so much so it is almost revealing and the reader will have a few AHA! moments, I think, from the way the author discusses how the patient is experiencing the world and how the world is interpreting what the patient is saying and/or doing.   It is a marvel in its way.   Facts or not it is so deliberate in its telling it has opened my eyes to a deeper understanding of how and why those with dementia may visit the past from time to time with such clarity and why the present  seems sometimes a confusing place, foggy, jumbled and out of touch with the patients location between their past and present with little regard for their future as it can be  a total unknown concept in their sense of time.   Brilliant book.   It just keeps getting better.    As Donald Rumsfeld said, “There are known knowns, things we know we know  but there are unknown unknowns,  the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”    And some of those things can be a heavy weight to carry indeed.    Bravo!!!! Bravo!!!  Joanna Cannon.   Excellent book, I would recommend it to anyone, any where from age 11 on up.   

 - Shirley J.