Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Extra Book - Inside The O'Briens

 Book: Inside The O'Briens

Author: Lisa Genova

Pages: 368



This is my 53rd read for the year

This is the story about the O'Brien family.  The dad, Joe, is a police officer with a wife and 4 children who has suddenly been having trouble staying still.  He cannot concentrate.  He feels angry all of the time.  His wife convinces him to see a doctor, and soon he finds himself in a Neurologist office getting the worst news of his life.  He has Huntingdon's disease.  A disease that has no cure and slowly eats away at a person until they can no longer care for themselves or even speak, Joe cannot believe this is happening.  Even worse, he discovers that his children have a 50% chance of having it as well.

As Joe struggles to find his purpose, his children must decide if they want to find out their fate. Knowing that the knowledge could change how they live their lives and evolve their own families, each child weighs the pros and cons of finding out.  The youngest of the 4, Katie, grapples with the decision longer than any of her other symptoms not knowing what she should do.

This was an okay book.  First - I have read quite a few Genova books, and I enjoy the disease portion of each of her novels.  She covers tough subjects, and life altering (or ending) diseases that most of us know little about.  I did learn quite a bit about Huntingdon's Disease, which I appreciated.  I knew a family in my hometown whose mom had this (and then passed to two of her three children) and I saw in her a lot of the things that Joe grapples with.  However - the ending of this book floored me.  It ended on a cliff hanger which - after giving it some thought - I know why the author did it.  But I was furious.  I had been waiting the entire novel for the knowledge that seemed to be coming at the end of the book and then.....nothing.  It was my least favorite of her novels so far.

Stars: 3.5

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