by Lisa Genova
This book is about a self-absorbed concert pianist who gets ALS. It documents his denial and then decline. It is a very difficult book to read as you learn of how is body stops working. He is divorced. His wife left him after he had numerous affairs and because she basically sacrificed her career as a jazz pianist to support him and look after their daughter. Their daughter does not have a good relationship with the father, she sympathizes with the Mother.
His ex-wife agrees to let him come live with her so she can look after him. It is exhausting and she resents him because he still can be thoughtless and demanding. The husband realizes he was not a good husband and father but cannot bring himself to apologize to his wife and daughter. Eventually he loses his voice and cannot say he is sorry.
As time goes by his wife realizes that she is partly responsible for her own fate. At the end the husband decides to let himself slowly die as his systems are shutting down. It would be incredibly expensive to try to keep him alive, about $400, 000/year which he cannot afford.
After he dies his wife receives a tape from a Doctor who was recording his voice. It is what he calls a legacy message. In it the husband apologizes to his wife. Too bad he didn't do it when he was alive.
I am afraid I did not have much sympathy for the husband. The book was a powerful story but I think it would have been more satisfying if he had apologized to his wife and daughter before he died. The man kept hoping he would reconcile with his father, the father thought his athletic sons were valuable and disparaged him. However, the man's father dies so they are never able to settle with each other. You would think he would have learned something from that considering his own death was imminent.
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