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The breathtaking new novel from the author of STILL ALICE, now adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore. What would you do if the body and brain you rely on suddenly let you down - and would it change the person you are inside? Joe O'Brien is a Boston cop; his physical stamina and… more
The breathtaking new novel from the author of STILL ALICE, now adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore. What would you do if the body and brain you rely on suddenly let you down - and would it change the person you are inside? Joe O'Brien is a Boston cop; his physical stamina and methodical mind have seen him through decades policing the city streets, while raising a family with his wife Rosie. When he starts committing uncharacteristic errors - mislaying his police weapon, trouble writing up reports, slurred speech - he attributes them to stress. Finally, he agrees to see a doctor and is handed a terrifying, unexpected diagnosis: Huntington's disease. Not only is Joe's life set to change forever, but each of his four grown-up children has a fifty per cent chance of inheriting the disease. Observing her potential future play out in her father's escalating symptoms, his pretty yoga teacher daughter Katie wrestles with how to make the most of the here and now, and how to care for her dad who is, inside, always an O'Brien. Inside the O'Briens is a powerfully true and tender elegy to the resilience of the human spirit.
less- ISBN:
- 9781471142901
- 9781471142901
- Category:
- Contemporary fiction
- Format:
- Paperback
- Publication Date:
- 07-04-2015
- Publisher:
- Simon & Schuster Ltd
- Country of origin:
- United Kingdom
- Pages:
- 352
- Dimensions:
- 234x153mm
- Weight:
- 0.44kg
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7 Reviews
Gaby
03/07/2015
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(0)
Inside the O’Brien’s is an interesting and personal portrayal of a close-knit family’s experience with Huntington’s disease. Genova successfully merges the informative near-textbook descriptions of this fatal disease with a compelling narrative about Joe and his family. I felt that I was learning a… more lot about this condition, while also reading fiction. It helped me to understand the realities of the disease and how it impacts individuals and families over time.
As Huntington’s disease is hereditary, it was important for the story to include a family. Although we are witnessing the physical difficulties through the father’s character, Joe, Genova also exposes the mental challenges faced by the whole family. Joe’s conflict is with his self-image. Once an admired police officer his movements are now erratic and uncontrolled and cause people to stare. His children face the possibility of inheriting the condition and debate whether or not there is benefit in testing and the advance knowledge that they too may have Huntington’s disease. Joe’s wife, in turn, has the role of supporting her family and we see how much Joe’s changing nature impacts on her life and well-being.
This was a truly informative book, made even more so by the inclusion of a strong and relatable cast of characters. less
Contains Spoilers
No
Astrid
16/06/2015
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(0)
As a disability support worker, who looks after people with Huntingtons Disease, i found this book very, very well written, handled with honesty and compassion, it could well be any of the people i've looked after in the last 13 years,Lisa Genova truely has a gift for words, i sincerely hope that… more this book raises awareness about HD and what this disease does to individuals and thier families, i highly recommend people read it. less
Contains Spoilers
No
Ella
25/04/2015
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(0)
‘Inside the O’Briens’ by Lisa Genova was a really insightful and enjoyable read. I thought it might be just another sappy and predictable story about illness, but this was not the case at all. The book is fairly fast-paced and I finished it quite quickly. The first half is about Joe coming to grips… more with the fact that he has Huntington’s Disease, the second half focuses on his daughter Katie, who is in turmoil about having a 50% chance of also inheriting the disease. ‘Inside the O’Briens’ really makes you think about what you would do in that situation: would you choose to take a simple test, which definitively tells you your genetic status? How would that affect the way you live your life? It is interesting to see which paths Joe’s four children choose. I didn’t love the open ending, and Katie’s indecisiveness began to get on my nerves, but overall I really enjoyed Lisa Genova’s novel and would definitely recommend it. less
Contains Spoilers
No
Pauline
16/04/2015
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(0)
This book by Lisa Genova is well researched and gives an incite into the trauma and emotions that affects families when they discover there is Huntington's disease in their family.
Although it was about the O'Briens I am sure there are many families impacted by this disease who have experienced… more exactly what is portrayed in the book. The book ended too quickly and I am feeling the loss after turning the last page this morning.
A must read. less
Contains Spoilers
No
Liana
07/04/2015
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(0)
Like Lisa Genova’s other books, this one has a way of aiming straight for the heart with emotional momentum and earth shattering truths. It provided understanding of Huntington’s disease through the eyes of its main character, Joe O’Brien, who was diagnosed with it in his mid-forties. It shows the… more domino effect it has within the family as the awareness of his illness comes to the forefront. It’s a terrifying read when you know nothing about Huntington’s Disease all because of the way the Author had written it.
Lisa Genova handled this topic beautifully and respectfully. She honoured the relationships of the family members, showed how it had affected each and every single one of them without hiding behind curtains and making it seem “easy” to cope with the knowledge of their father suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and what it means for their futures. It shows a family, literally shocked to the core and the fear of knowing or not knowing if it also means the children would suffer the same fate.
Through this book you get to see firsthand what Huntington’s does to people, how it slowly creeps up on the victim and how terrifyingly heartbreaking it can be to bear witness to it let alone be the one who was diagnosed with it.
Joe was a very likeable character: a romantic at heart, a good friend, a great father and I couldn’t help but be along for the ride with him and hoping (in some fantastical way) that a cure would be found and he would live a life that is completely his. I knew it was never going to happen. But I wanted it to. I hated the thought that his whole life had changed before he even knew it was happening - the fidgeting, the forgetting, the mood swings. It literally crept up on him without any warning. And the denial of having an incurable disease at the beginning is a perfect response that most would go through. No one would want to believe that they have something wrong with them that couldn’t be fixed. And the fear and despair of knowing what it would do to him was heartbreaking. Nothing was ever going to be the same again.
I never knew much about Huntington’s disease. Only the word and that is was a disease because there never was any reason to know about it. No one in my family has suffered from it and neither have any of my friends. So I was a bit ignorant to it all. And then this book came to me in the mail a few weeks ago and I was overwhelmed with the facts. And with those facts came a respect for the disease for its horrifying ability to take away your very being without having a chance to fight back. It’s a real life bittersweet horror story. less
Contains Spoilers
No
Melinda
29/03/2015
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(0)
Inside the O’Briens provides a glimpse at the destruction that Huntington’s disease can do to a family. Joe is in his 40’s, working hard towards retirement at the Boston Police Department, when he notices he’s having trouble taking direction from his superiors when they are training for events. He’… more s nervous, jittery all the time, and his wife, Rosie, has noticed an increase in his temper in the past few years. Where usually he was a reasonable husband, these days the smallest thing can send him off into a whirlwind of unstoppable rage.
Rumors are flying around the town that Joe’s succumbed to that which was his mothers downfall – the drink. But those inside the O’Brien family know this not to be true. Scared of turning into the nightmare his mother became when he was young, Joe isn’t likely to drink more than 2 glasses of beer in a sitting.
The O’Briens are a close knit Irish family, with their adult children living in the large brownstone with Joe and his wife Rosie, paying them minimal rent to live in the converted floors above Rosie and Joe. Sunday roast is non-negotiable, no matter how bad Rosie’s food is, and they stick together, even when they can hardly stand each other.
So it’s with their family in mind that Joe and Rosie visit their doctor, uncovering the true reason behind Joe’s odd behaviour. Joe has Huntington’s, and he’s likely to be dead within the next 10-15 years, on a tragic trajectory of pain and humiliation as he loses control of his being, just like his mother did all those years ago. And the hardest blow is that their children each have a 50% chance of dying the same way.
Breaking the news to their children is the hardest thing to do, and each child struggles with what a gene positive result might mean for their lives. The eldest, JJ, is already starting a family, and when he’s gene positive, it’s almost too much for the family to manage.
But it’s the youngest, daughter Katie, the zen yoga teacher who is too young to have to deal with such life changing news. Katie changes her mind between wanting to know and not wanting to know, living in the in between of the decisions in a dream as she floats through a year of her life with her boyfriend Felix. But decisions need to be made, Felix is moving away and wants to start a life with her, Huntington’s or not.
As Joe struggles with the change in his circumstances, losing everything he stood for, his symptoms worsen and he finds himself thinking more of his mother’s illness and what it meant to him. What can he learn from his mother now, when he can barely move past his prejudices to her supposed crime of being an alcoholic? When the future is known for Joe, how can he live decently with Huntington’s when the disease takes the ability to live an authentic life away from him?
The story boils down to the path Joe must take to provide an example to his children. The importance of his choices is reflected in the lives of his children, who have many years of living with the answer to their tests, or fearing the worst.
less
Contains Spoilers
No
Melanie
23/03/2015
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(0)
We love Lisa Genova’s style (author of recent movie Still Alice) and her latest is no different as she writes about Huntington’s Disease. We follow the O’brien family, head of which is Joe who is a Boston cop who discovers he has Huntington’s and tells the rest his four adult children that they… more have a 50% chance that they too may have disease. While an incredibly sad book and disease I actually found this had a hopeful ending as we follow the family through the progression of the disease and the siblings grappling with their own fatality and whether they live for today, yesterday or tomorrow. Most importantly you will not be the same person after reading this powerful and compelling book. less
Contains Spoilers
No
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