Mother in the Middle: A Biologist's Story of Caring for Parent and Child

by Sybil Lockhart

Book Overview

Sybil Lockhart, a Berkeley neurobiologist, became a "mother in the middle" when she was pregnant with her second daughter and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. What makes Sybil's story different, and so powerful, is that she understood the neurological processes, by turns exciting and devastating, that were taking place in the brains of those she loved. Interweaving her scientific expertise with her own complicated emotions, she writes...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416541551
• ISBN13: 9781416541554
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, informing, and deeply moving

What a fascinating look at a familiar subject -- when Sybil Lockhart's mother began her devestating descent into Alzheimer's, Sybil found herself caring for both her parent and her daughters. What makes this caregiver's tale different from so many others is that Lockhart is a trained neurobiologist, and understood what was occuring to her mother on a cellular level. Lockhart is a deft and gifted writer, and takes the reader on an amazing journey through the brain -- not only through her mother's decline, but at the same time she also describes the changes occurring to her young children, whose brains were making fundamental leaps forward even as her mother's brain shut down. Lockhart presents clinical information extremely well, but also tempers it with a very moving account of the agonizing pain of a child having to step in and care for their parent. Lockhart also does not shy away from describing the severe impact that caring for her mother had on her marriage. A very good book.

A beautifully-written memoir

This is a thoughtful, sensitive memoir relevant to any of us in the "sandwich generation," parenting young children while also caring for our aging parents. Sybil Lockhart's unique spin on the tale is that she's a biologist, and she understands -- and can explain, elegantly -- the neuroscience behind her developing daughters' brains and her mother's sadly degenerating mind. The science is fascinating and every bit as engrossing as the rich family story Lockhart tells.

A Fresh Look : Unique Perspective

While the story of dealing with an aging parent, while being a parent at the same time is not a new one, this book creates new ways to see it all. As a biologist who is a solid writer, Lockhart is able to explain what is happening to her mom from a neurobologist's stand point. It is fascinating to read about the biology of the brian in both her aging mother and her growing young girls. Far from dry, Lockhart has a tender touch. Her writing is honest and has a ring of truth that feels like a deep reach down into your heart. I couldn't put it down. And I am so looking forward to reading more from this new and promising writer!

Honest and moving

I will tell you part of the reason I am giving this a 5 star is her brutally honest way she exposed her story. I don't know if I could have been so forthcoming, maybe it was like therapy for her. I believe this to be an excellent book. Her background in the scientific side really made it interesting even you haven't had to think about dealing with the emotional side of having a loved one go through Alzheimer's, while still living your own life, or trying to. I am already recommending and loaning out my copy.

A beautifully written book

This book was so much more than I expected. I figured it would be an interesting viewpoint, a biologist explaining Alzheimer's and contrasting it with the development of her young girls. That is was, but in a lyrical and moving way, with much more to the story. I had worried it would have a structure I have come to really dislike, that of one chapter about the "now" alternating with one about pure science, with not enough of either. Instead, the science is blending in, and this is much more memoir than science, although I did learn a lot from what I read. The best part of this book, for me, was the honesty. Sybil Lockhart doesn't shy away from really exposing what she felt about caring for her mother---the intense love but also the irritation, the anger, the denial and the despair. She also is honest about the affects of her mother's illness on her marriage, and even that there is more to that to the tension she has with her husband. She also talks so wonderfully about the feelings we can have for a house, as she sells her childhood home. There is even much here about that never-ending conflict between career and mothering. I think when Lockhart became a biologist, it was probably lucky for that field, but I think she is a rare example of someone that really was meant to be a writer. It is probably lucky she wasn't one from the start, however, because her writing avoids the feeling so many memoirs have, that was written long along in her mind and in college classes, and that she was just waiting for a life event to pin it on. This is real writing, and I hope she writes much more.