Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

"Left Neglected"

Sarah Nickerson is used to multitasking as the VP for marketing of a high-profile consulting firm in Boston, MA and a mom to three young children. Her busy life comes to an abrupt halt when she has an accident and suffers severe brain damage. Her diagnosis: Left Neglect. The left side of her world becomes non-existent and she has to retrain her brain to remember the left.

The author has a neuroscience doctorate from Harvard and I feel like her experience(s) helped her be able to tell this fictional story accurately. It was hard to understand that somebody could just lose the left of their whole world. Not only is Sarah not aware of the left side of her body, there is not a left side of the room, plate, book, etc. She can't even understand the meaning of "turn left". I can't imagine not knowing that my left existed!

I couldn't help but laugh a little at the beginning when she is comparing herself to stay at home moms and that she was shocked to find out that a lot of women have degrees and choose not to work. I wonder if this is a bit of the author's own perspective on SAHMs. I'm one of those degreed women who choose to stay at home, so I didn't relate to this woman who worked 80+ hours a day and just barely made it home in time to read bedtime stories. ;) However, I enjoyed seeing her inner transformation as she was willing to slow down and re-evaluate what really matters in life.

The most interesting part of this book was that I have a friend who goes to church with me that was diagnosed with Left Neglect when she was 21. We were able to talk to her during our book club about what she experienced. She said the book was very accurate in describing what having Left Neglect feels like. It was neat to get a first-hand perspective on this neurological syndrome.