Left Neglected

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova              PlayAway:  9 hours, 12 minutes          Paperback Book:  352 pages                  

This was a very good book about a woman with a husband, 3 kids and a high pressure V.P. position.    She worked 12 hour – 16 hour days then put in time working at home on work projects to keep up with the demanding pace of her job.   She never put in less than 80 hour weeks then when she got home, there was dinner to be made, dishes to be wished, bathing and reading stories to the kids and running all over town getting her son to his sports events, her daughter to her ballet classes and recitals, etc.    Her husband didn’t pitch in a lot with the kids and even if she had important international meetings on her schedule for first thing when she arrived at work, her husband would not volunteer to drive the kids to daycare and school.   The best he would do is rock, paper, scissors with the loser having to take the kids to school/daycare and she usually tended to lose and had to do it.   In that, I think he was a jerk.   He could have been more helpful, he could have been willing to take the kids half the time at least instead of being a turd about it, but, no.    Rushing the kids to daycare and school ran her behind (again) and of course their son who has attention deficit disorder decided to bolt and climb the jungle gym on the playground, her daughter has a melt-down over something, it is cold and icy and she is trying to rush across the playground in 4 inch heels to get her son and talk him down.    In so doing she left the baby who was asleep in the car while trying to corral the older kids and get them inside the building.    By the time she accomplishes all that, speaks briefly with another parent while on the fly, she realizes the baby is alone in the running car.   Yes, you are thinking what I did.   OMgosh she is going to get back out there and someone will have highjacked her car and took the baby in the process!  That didn’t happen thankfully, but, something equally bad does.    Don’t want to completely spoil the story for you, because it is a good one but author Lisa Genova takes the reader on such a realistic ride from start to finish that you will find yourself getting the visual and commiserating with the main character all the way to the end of the book.    Very realistic situations, very realistic dialogue, an astounding amount of research presented in many medical situations that opened my eyes to a whole new genre of medicine I had never considered before.    This book is by the author who wrote the story, “Just Alice,” about a college professor who succumbs to Alzheimers, which was also a very realistic, very well researched book on a medical life changing condition.    Excellent book.   I highly recommend it to anyone probably 5^th or 6^th grade on up through adult infinity.

 - Shirley J.