Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Turn of Mind

Alice LaPlante

Like Jennifer's own mind, the writing is fragmented, told in the first person and broken up with diary entries and flashbacks. Once you get used to the style it's effective at depicting the demise of an intelligent woman, suffering from dementia, suspected of murdering her best friend. Although a little too slow to be a thriller it is certainly fascinating to see the crime unravelling through Jennifer's brief lucid moments and memories.

Extract
Now take your pills. Here's your water. Good. Now. How about a walk? She holds out her hand. I take it. I study it. When I cannot sleep, when I am confused, I label things. I try to remember what matters. And I use their right names. Names are precious things.
I run my fingers across the hand I am holding. This is the hamate. This is the pisiform. The triquetrum, the lunate, the scaphoid, the capitate, trapezoid, trapezium.
Parallels
  • Still Alice by Lisa Genova
  • Iris - the film