Finding the Right Words: A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain

by Cindy Weinstein

The moving story of an English professor studying neurology in order to understand and come to terms with her father's death from Alzheimer's.

Winner of the Memoir Prize for Books by the Memoir Magazine

In 1985, when Cindy Weinstein was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, her beloved father, Jerry, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He was fifty-eight years old. Twelve years later, at age seventy, he died having...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1421441268
• ISBN13: 9781421441269
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

An emotional memoir that also educates the reader on Alzheimer's effect on the brain

This is an engaging read if you're looking for a more holistic picture of what a diagnosis of Alzheimer's means. This is a memoir of sorts. The author, Cindy Weinstein, remembers her father's personality and strengths and recalls how they diminished over the course of his disease. Those memories are woven into her life's storyline that revolved around literature and writing. This is balanced with dialogue from the neurologist, Bruce L. Miller, MD, that informs the reader on what is happening in the brain during each stage of her father's illness. I really liked the back and forth conversation between the authors - an emotional and educational combination that should inspire more empathy for all patients and families in the ALZ community.