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helen_t_reads 's review for:
The Things We Keep
by Sally Hepworth
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Anna Forster is thirty-eight years old and has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. She has been placed in Rosalind House, an assisted living facility, by her family, where there's just one other resident her age, Luke, who is also living with dementia.
As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to all that's left, and her feelings for Luke, as they have fallen in love, despite the forces that are set against them.
Meanwhile, Eve and her daughter Celementine are coming to terms with a major life change, having lost both a loved one and their former privileged lifestyle, and Eve becomes the new cool at Rosalind House.
When a tragic incident occurs, Luke and Anna's families decide to separate them. Eve is the one person at the facility who can help Anna and Luke, but only if she's willing to risk everything for them.
Moving backwards and forwards in time, this well written story deals with the issue of early onset dementia, and it's a refreshing change to see it as the focus here, rather than the more usual scenario of older characters living with dementia. It also deals with suicide, loss and bereavement, and grief.
Both Anna's and Eve and Clementine's stories have memory at their heart: Anna's is increasingly erratic and unreliable, whist Eve and her daughter are confounded by family memories involving a man who proved to be so different to what they believed him to be.
Themes of personal freedom, agency, autonomy and determination are also examined - whether that be in relation to who has the right to decide the best interests of a person living with Dementia and whether they can consent to a sexual relationship, to the right of an individual to end their life.
Despite the serious issues at the heart of it, the novel manages to offer moments of humour and light heartedness, and Sally Hepworth is able to find hope, joy and positivity in seemingly tragically sad and hopeless circumstances.
Whilst the ending is perhaps a tad too "happy ever after" in flavour, and some of the attitudes to dementia care, language and terminology have inevitably dated a little since it was written, it is still a powerful, emotional and deeply thought-provoking read.
As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to all that's left, and her feelings for Luke, as they have fallen in love, despite the forces that are set against them.
Meanwhile, Eve and her daughter Celementine are coming to terms with a major life change, having lost both a loved one and their former privileged lifestyle, and Eve becomes the new cool at Rosalind House.
When a tragic incident occurs, Luke and Anna's families decide to separate them. Eve is the one person at the facility who can help Anna and Luke, but only if she's willing to risk everything for them.
Moving backwards and forwards in time, this well written story deals with the issue of early onset dementia, and it's a refreshing change to see it as the focus here, rather than the more usual scenario of older characters living with dementia. It also deals with suicide, loss and bereavement, and grief.
Both Anna's and Eve and Clementine's stories have memory at their heart: Anna's is increasingly erratic and unreliable, whist Eve and her daughter are confounded by family memories involving a man who proved to be so different to what they believed him to be.
Themes of personal freedom, agency, autonomy and determination are also examined - whether that be in relation to who has the right to decide the best interests of a person living with Dementia and whether they can consent to a sexual relationship, to the right of an individual to end their life.
Despite the serious issues at the heart of it, the novel manages to offer moments of humour and light heartedness, and Sally Hepworth is able to find hope, joy and positivity in seemingly tragically sad and hopeless circumstances.
Whilst the ending is perhaps a tad too "happy ever after" in flavour, and some of the attitudes to dementia care, language and terminology have inevitably dated a little since it was written, it is still a powerful, emotional and deeply thought-provoking read.