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victoriadiesattheend's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book where nothing really happens - you’re in the head on an older woman the whole time during her and her husband’s RV trip to California. She has cancer and he has alzheimer’s. They bicker, stop and eat hamburgers, stay at campgrounds and hotels, watch slides of their lives throughout the years. Over and over. It’s mundane, melancholy, sweet, and basically a book about choices. Super easy to read and weirdly gripping considering nothing happens and the ending is sort of obvious. I liked it!
libraryzen's review against another edition
1.0
I read 12% into the book and decided to watch the movie instead of wasting my time on the book (due to the reviews and that it has a crap ending) as it is boring. I was 50% through the movie and turned it off. BORING!!! I can usually handle boring, I majored in history after all, but this is like reading an autobiography, and those are soul killers IMHO. I will sleep tonight knowing I have not missed anything.
shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition
This was a light read about a heavy subject. Ella and John are in their 80s and have lived relatively happy, 'standard' middle class lives- married for over 60 years, raised 2 kids, have grandchildren etc. John has Alzheimers and Ella has cancer which she has elected not to treat. Ella plans a last hurrah - a cross-country trip in their leisure seeker RV against their children's and their doctor's wishes. Both the joys and indignities of illness and old age are on-the-table, so to speak. Freedom, autonomy and controlling our own destiny (to the extent possible) are the dominate themes.
kittys_reads's review
3.75
Very heartwarming and funny and sad at times. Makes you want to go on a road trip and hug your grandparents.
the very end with Ella telling us that that was the happiest ending broke my heart
amchica's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this up because the author is from Detroit. It's a bittersweet story of a couple - a husband suffering from Alheimer's and a wife in the end stages of terminal cancer - who take a road trip across Route 66 against the wishes of their children and doctors. It's funny and irreverent but also poignant. Having watched my own grandfather's own battle with Alzheimer's maked the book that much more touching for me.
larryerick's review against another edition
2.0
As I approached reading this book, I assumed it would be a narrative about an elderly couple doing a cross-country adventure. It's not. It's a fictional memoir about a seriously ill cancer patient well past the average life span, who basically kidnaps her equally old husband with fairly advanced but still generally functional Alzheimer's disease, and goes on a road trip from Michigan to California in their Leisure Seeker camper van, trying to track along the old U.S. Route 66 as much as practical. She makes nearly all the decisions for the couple, leaving some decisions up to her husband in much the same way a dog or cat owner sometimes caves to the pet's desires over their own. Her doctor and their two adult children are dead set against it. She has them go anyway. I wondered why a male author would speak through the woman and not the man. If he thought he couldn't really know the man's thoughts because he had Alzheimer's, then he could have easily have switched the maladies between the sexes and spoken through the man. It turns out the author's father had died from the disease and felt compelled to express himself about it through this book. But the whole book revolves around the cancer-stricken woman. She's not very likable. Despite knowing her husband's condition, she chastises him regularly for failure to measure up. She explains their white-flight from the dangerous blacks of Detroit in the past. All Latinos are "Mexicans" who she takes little effort to appreciate. Towns and buildings and people that aren't "nice", all get her emphasis on their shortcomings, while frequently daring others to show any discount for their own deficiencies. When she isn't being especially thrifty with money, she expects absolute top service for what extra dollars she paid. (At one point she's flabbergasted at having to pay $125 for a double room at a motel.) And through it all, she seems to be wondering why her husband doesn't make life easier for her. I wondered if the author was reflecting his own mother's views of life or his own. Having watched a rather lengthy interview with him from a book reviewer, I decided his mother was merely a general stand-in for the character, capturing "old mom talk" and it was his own biases that came through in the book. He specifically said it was easy for him to write as an elderly woman. Two final thoughts: the first being the ending to the book, which I will not reveal, but I thought the ending was fairly obvious as it approached, but some readers will be caught off guard. Given that the author fraudulently presented earlier parts of the book in contradiction to the obvious nature of the ending, I guess those readers can be forgiven for their surprise. The second thought is about the "major motion picture" that has been released starring to fine actors. I can say conclusively that the movie makers made several changes from the book, such as replacing a Leisure Seeker brand camper with a Winnebago RV, thus negating the dual meaning to the Leisure Seeker title. I'm hoping the movie also makes the female character more likable.
karenleagermain's review against another edition
5.0
My boyfriend and I have a thing where we pick out books for each other as a surprise. He thought that I would like this because it was about two of my favorite things, road trips and Disneyland. What he didn’t realize, is this book was probably the most emotional read I have ever encountered.
Michael Zadorrian write a novel about the end of life. Ella, who is dying from cancer, decides to pack up her RV and take route 66 to Disneyland. Her husband suffers from Alzheimer’s and clueless to her plan. He lives minute to minute and goes along with her instructions. Ella’s adult children and doctors are very much against this trip, but helpless as Ella’s desire for one last vacation supersedes their wishes.
I have had two family members with Alzheimer’s and this story perfectly conveyed the disease and frustration that comes with the territory. It actually felt like Zadoorian took scenarios and conversations from my own life. It was eerie. He has obviously encountered this in his own life, because it was pitch perfect.
Personally heartbreaking to read, was Ella going against the wishes of her very concerned children. My mom died of cancer a few years ago and I had the same conversation with her with regard to stopping treatment. As a child, you have to respect your parent’s wishes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy or that you don’t beg them to reconsider. This was painful to read in the book.
I found a majority of the story very upsetting to read, but only because it was dead-on with emotions that I have felt or situations that I have encountered. This sounds weird, but as a reader, I felt like the author “got me”. I found the book impossible to put down.
Michael Zadorrian write a novel about the end of life. Ella, who is dying from cancer, decides to pack up her RV and take route 66 to Disneyland. Her husband suffers from Alzheimer’s and clueless to her plan. He lives minute to minute and goes along with her instructions. Ella’s adult children and doctors are very much against this trip, but helpless as Ella’s desire for one last vacation supersedes their wishes.
I have had two family members with Alzheimer’s and this story perfectly conveyed the disease and frustration that comes with the territory. It actually felt like Zadoorian took scenarios and conversations from my own life. It was eerie. He has obviously encountered this in his own life, because it was pitch perfect.
Personally heartbreaking to read, was Ella going against the wishes of her very concerned children. My mom died of cancer a few years ago and I had the same conversation with her with regard to stopping treatment. As a child, you have to respect your parent’s wishes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy or that you don’t beg them to reconsider. This was painful to read in the book.
I found a majority of the story very upsetting to read, but only because it was dead-on with emotions that I have felt or situations that I have encountered. This sounds weird, but as a reader, I felt like the author “got me”. I found the book impossible to put down.
katscribefever's review against another edition
3.0
I doubt I ever would have read this book had it not been eligible for a reading challenge, but even though I am not currently a member of the target audience, it still applies to me as chances are I'll be part of the target age group eventually! This novel follows aging couple Ella and John, stricken with cancer and Alzheimer's respectively, as they take back ownership of their own lives after decades of raising and caring for children and grandchildren. Narrated by Ella, a sardonic but still-devoted wife to her dwindling husband, the two pack up their rickety camper and set off on a pilgrimage to Disneyland. The journey is long, filled with arguments and sorrows, but the reclamation of their independence after decades spent exclusively living for others is touching and a little bit of a reality smack that invites some self reflection on the future and your impact on it.