A Novelist in Shadowland

My mom had this. And it's heartbreaking to watch. I remember at one point she couldn't think of the word for spoon. Or the words to describe a spoon. But she wanted a spoon.

She had been an english teacher.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:18 PM on August 17 [3 favorites]

To have this happen to me is a great fear of mine. I greatly sympathize with West's condition, and I found the first part of this article (the italicized part written by his wife) fascinating and unnerving, brief though it was.

However, when I got to the excerpt of West's memoir, I almost immediately lost interest. I can appreciate flowery prose, but it seemed to me as though his writing was intentionally overwrought; as though he could banish the aphasia by making his statements more complicated and treacly than necessary. I would have liked to read his story told in a simpler light, but perhaps he thought that would have been a surrender to the effects of the stroke.

Thanks for posting this.
posted by Shecky at 4:20 PM on August 17

I knew that the left hemisphere processes positive feelings, the right negative ones; unopposed, the remaining right hemisphere could spark dark angry emotions for the rest of his life.
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