A Mysterious Literary Pattern
Robert Kolker’s The Vanishing Family joins a growing bookshelf of new works focusing on dementia.
TL;DR
- There is a growing trend of new books focusing on dementia, both fiction and nonfiction.
- Robert Kolker's "The Vanishing Family" explores the "slipperiness of identity" and the "malleability of the self" in the context of inherited dementia.
- The condition of dementia, with its medical and personal mysteries and "grim certainty," offers rich terrain for writers.
- Kenan Orhan's novel "The Renovation" uses a surrealist fable to explore dementia alongside themes of exile and the nuclear family.
- Emma Cline's novel "Switzy" offers a rare perspective from the patient's point of view, portraying Alzheimer's in a dreamlike style.