Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me

by Sarah Leavitt

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Author: Sarah Leavitt

Publisher: Skyhorse

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1616086394
ISBN 13: 978-1616086398

In this powerful memoir the the LA Times calls “moving, rigorous, and heartbreaking," Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer’s disease transformed her mother, Midge, and her family forever. In spare blackand- white drawings and clear, candid prose, Sarah shares her family’s journey through a harrowing range of emotions—shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration—all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness. Midge, a Harvard educated intellectual, struggles to comprehend the simplest words; Sarah’s father, Rob, slowly adapts to his new role as full-time caretaker, but still finds time for wordplay and poetry with his wife; Sarah and her sister Hannah argue, laugh, and grieve together as they join forces to help Midge. Tangles confronts the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease, and ultimately releases a knot of memories and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart.

Review

“The power of this graphic memoir is not that its story about a family dealing with Alzheimer’s is so extraordinary, but that it has become so ordinary. In her first book, Canadian writer and cartoonist Leavitt shows her mother agreeing to have her experiences with the disease documented because “[m]aybe this will help other families!” And likely it will, letting those experiencing the dementia of someone they love know what to expect, and to reassure that the tangled emotions they feel in response—anger, frustration, devotion, humor—are inevitable. Though this is primarily an account of the author’s experiences as her mother becomes all but emotionally unrecognizable, it is also a narrative spanning two three generations of complicated family dynamics. Leavitt illustrates significant differences between her mother’s closeness with her sisters and how the disease affects those relationships, and the contrasting tension between the author and her sister. It shows the strains that Alzheimer’s puts on everything—from the sufferer’s well being and sense of purpose to a loving marriage to the physical demands of caring for someone who can no longer care for herself. The narrative is human, honest, loving and occasionally even funny. “I created this book,” Leavitt writes in the introduction, “to remember her as she was before she got sick, but also to remember her as she was during her illness, the ways in which she was transformed and the ways in which parts of her endured. As my mother changed, I changed too, forced to reconsider my own identity as a daughter and as an adult and to recreate my relationship with my mother.” Not simply the story of a disease, but of the flawed, complex, intelligent people whose lives it transformed.” (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review)

“Not only a spot-on portrait of the dark comedy and vast sadness that Alzheimer’s contains, the book is a fitting tribute to Leavitt’s mom.” (Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair)

“Beautiful detailed drawings capture perfectly the joy, frustration, sense of loss, humor, and poignancy of dealing with Alzheimer’s. I welcome this book, as compelling, instructive, and yet enormously comforting too.” (Lesley Fairfield, author of Tyranny)

“This is a really important book. I can’t get it out of my head...we should all own a copy.” (Rosalind Penfold, author of Dragonslippers)

“Midge Leavitt begins showing symptoms of Alzheimer's in her mid-50s. Her handwriting starts to wobble, she loses herself in familiar parts of town, and strange, "blankety-blank" headaches shift around in her skull. Losing words and stories proves particularly debilitating for a woman who was once so enthused by them–with her husband, fellow teacher Rob, she "built a life of books and art and creativity". Leavitt responds in kind in this heartbreaking memoir, which follows her mother's gradual decline and her family's reaction to it. Her simple line drawings are rarely fascinating in themselves but they serve the story well, capturing facial expressions with subtle brevity and showing the subtext behind brave or cruel words as Leavitt's voice stretches from calm rationalizing to an anguished wail and back. Stark details–accounts of tidying up after a woman whose body is no longer her own and trying to communicate with a mother who can barely recognize her family–are married with warm, funny recollections of Jewish-Canadian life.” (James Smart - The Guardian (UK))

“Sarah Leavitt uses the medium of comics to tell her story with more economy and power than either words or pictures could muster by themselves. She brings a good eye for the telling detail--the small observations that reveal larger truths--to her memoir of a family in crisis. Tangles is the work of a perceptive, creative, and honest storyteller.” (Brian Fies, author of Mom's Cancer)

“[Leavitt’s] drawings . . . put me in mind of Roz Chast . . . [her] skill, economy of line, and efficiency of vocabulary give you plot and interwoven characters, humor, pathos, comedy, and tragedy enough for 500 pages of prose.” (Eleanor Cooney, author of Death in Slow Motion)

“Tangles is simply a fine and touching book. As the rate of Alzheimer’s continues to increase as the population ages, Tangles joins Jeffrey Moore’s novel The Memory Artists and Sarah Polley’s film Away from Her at the head of a list of illuminating and much-needed artistic responses.” (Ian McGillis - National Post (Canada))

“The story has a definite place in the literature available to persons who have to deal with this terrible tragedy. The format (a graphic novel) is fresh and will appeal to the younger generation who are just beginning to come to grips with this crisis. Sarah describes very clearly many of the various problems that occur with each stage of the illness. She is very honest about her reactions and feelings as well as her attempts to cope with them. There are many lessons for others to learn but the biggest lesson is that it is OK to have reactions, feelings and frustrations that are not always “correct” as one watches a loved-one’s progress. I think that the graphic novel tells the story in a more vivid and personal way than most books could possibly do… I know from my years of experience that the novel will be very helpful to others dealing with Alzheimer’s.” (E. Prather Palmer, MD, former Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Clinic, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts)

“An extraordinarily moving and vivid account, in text and cartoon-style pictures, of the life and death of an Alzheimer’s patient.” (John Bayley, author of Elegy for Iris)

About the Author

Sarah Leavitt is a writer and cartoonist. She has published comics, fiction, and nonfiction in magazines, newspapers, and a number of anthologies, including Nobody’s Mother and Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer’s Disease. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me