Rating: 
Summary: A different viewpoint. Could not put the book down.
Review: As a 61 year old male caregiver I know a bit about Alzheimer's. I have read many books on Alzheimer's telling me to take care of myself. This book tells of the events in a woman Alzheimer's victim's life from her viewpoint The tales of sexual frustration, fear and confusion are riviting. I was supposed to return the book to it's owner for a friend. I glanced inside and just kept reading. For days I was a better person since I realized what was going on for the person afflicted. I bought the book after I read it, and I have loaned it out to other people who have also been moved! I was amazed that such a good book could be written by one with Alzheimer's
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Insight
Review: I am a patient with early onset Alzheimers. After reading this book I didn't feel so alone.
Rating:
Summary: I belive Diana did us a great favor in writing this book.
Review: I am a patient with early onset Alzheimers. After reading this book I didn't feel so alone.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and informative
Review: Living in the Labyrinth is a very personal account of one woman's journey through the maze of early-onset Alzheimer's. I found this book to be incredible and helpful as I am coping with a grandmother with Alzheimer's.I applaud Diana on her fight to maintain her independence as well as on her brutal honesty in letting the reader into very personal areas of her life. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like for a person so young to begin seeing their life slipping away from them and knowing that it will forever be different, no matter how much one wants it to stay the same. Diana does fight - she does not give up and she is still fighting. Her struggles throughout the book, her hiding information from her family and friends, all testify to her strength and fierce determination to conquer this disease. I thought the actions and reactions of her children as well as her husband was very revealing and at times sad. This is an excellent book for anyone coping with a loved one with AD - I found it very insightful, informative, and helpful. I found comfort in this book in helping me to deal with my grandmother. Thank you Diana for allowing us to enter into your private world.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and informative
Review: Living in the Labyrinth is a very personal account of one woman's journey through the maze of early-onset Alzheimer's. I found this book to be incredible and helpful as I am coping with a grandmother with Alzheimer's. I applaud Diana on her fight to maintain her independence as well as on her brutal honesty in letting the reader into very personal areas of her life. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like for a person so young to begin seeing their life slipping away from them and knowing that it will forever be different, no matter how much one wants it to stay the same. Diana does fight - she does not give up and she is still fighting. Her struggles throughout the book, her hiding information from her family and friends, all testify to her strength and fierce determination to conquer this disease. I thought the actions and reactions of her children as well as her husband was very revealing and at times sad. This is an excellent book for anyone coping with a loved one with AD - I found it very insightful, informative, and helpful. I found comfort in this book in helping me to deal with my grandmother. Thank you Diana for allowing us to enter into your private world.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Living in the Labyrinth is one of the first books I read when I began researching Alzheimer's disease. It is a gripping account of Alzheimer's disease from the inside. I found myself reading the whole book in one sitting.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Living in the Labyrinth is one of the first books I read when I began researching Alzheimer's disease. It is a gripping account of Alzheimer's disease from the inside. I found myself reading the whole book in one sitting.
Rating: 
Summary: Instructive first-hand journal of author in early Alz.
Review: Sad and at times surprising story of author as she enters the first stage(s) of Alzheimer's disease. A quick read, yet quite informative
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book
Review: This amazing book is written by an Alzheimer's victim herself. Diana Friel McGowin began having symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease at age 45. She gives us an inside look at what it's like to have this disease, from the first symptoms noticed, through the ordeal of searching for a diagnosis, to the finality in the diagnosis itself and the daily losses that come. Diana has a wonderful attitude, finding comfort in her memories of simple things: the smell of the small town library of her childhood, the the taste of icicles on her tongue, the sight of the first daffodils of spring, lightning bugs, a train whistle, her grandmother's violin. What a wonderful way to view it all, as she says "I can sometimes enjoy the sweet fragrance of night blooming jasmine when no one else can." We, the children of Alzheimer's victims, hope that a cure can be found, but if it doesn't come in our time, we do have an example of radiant acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Another exploration into ALZ by one who is there
Review: This is a magnificent addition to the small but growing oeuvre of those telling it like it is from within the shadow of Alzheimer's. Unlike Kuhn's "Alzheimer's Early Stages" who offers a Prozac to those of us who defy his Polyannish view of a CRS' mental functioning without seeking insights from those who remain lucid and analytical and rational within, despite our infrequent "windows of clarity", McGowan tells it like it is for some of us: warts, fistulae, et al. She does not hold back from her anger, depression and increased libido. [Discretely, I have observed that the female party in an ALZ pairing, whether caregiver or ALZer, seems to be affected by ALZ as if it were a female aphrodasiac, whereas the male is threatened by his partner's increased "horniness." Studies of sexual activities in aging environments seems to confirm this casual observation, which appears psychological rather than physiological, i.e. it seems not related to the physical phenomena of erectile dysfunction, or loss of vaginal lubrication, but rather a soritin reward for coping with the stress of ALZ. McGowan's struggles with those who demanded that she surrender control over her completed opus are mirrored in our daily lives as our caregivers, facilitators, and M.S.W.'ers "command" that we
that we surrender our remaining identities since these are an obstacle for those who "know what is best for us;" and regard disobedience as defiance by ADHD juveniles. McGowan's book could have used a considerate and conservative collaborator and/or editor to polish the rough diamond she has put forth, just as DeBaggio's "Losing My Mind" cries out for polishing, which refining Snyder's "Speaking Our Minds" exemplifies. But both McGowan and DeBaggio give us the raw data, from which we we middle stage ALZheimers desperately need so that we are not be alone nor terminally unique. Interstingly, McGowan justifiably claims credit for instigating an Alzheimer support group, where none existed [there are an abundance of groups and "Idiot's Guides" for caregivers, but these tend, like Alanon, to be pity pots of anger and resentment directed at those of us with middle stage Rapid Onset "Late Onset" diagnoses, who have not yet deteriorated like Iris Murdoch into vocal or literary aphasia although the communicating becomes more difficult as the Ah!HA!s of insight flee much too rapidly. [I do not envison heaven for those who forget that one must recall spelling in order to use a dictionary or word processer!] Like Strauss' "Speaking to Alzheimers", "Living in the Labyrinth" is an ideal guide of "Do's & Dont's for those who wish to communicate with us, without inflicting their own anger and resentment into us. A "Must Read" for ALZers, Caregivers, Facilitators, and others who do not have Closed Minds regarding those of us who assure them that there is "A Human Thinking Within" the quickly closing walls of outward communication, acknowledgement, and recognition. On the other hand, "cursed be those who have eyes and do not see, and ears which do not hear;" [Jeremiah & Ezekiel] vasecors et amens.
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