When It Gets Dark: An Enlightened Reflection on Life with Alzheimer's - Hardcover

DeBaggio, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743250036 ISBN 13: 9780743250030

Publisher: Free Press, 2003

Synopsis

A poignant account of the author's experiences as a person with Alzheimer's discusses his frustrations with his deteriorating mental faculties, his steadfast sense of wonder at the world around him, his real and remembered visits to important places from his past, and his memories about his journalism career. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas DeBaggio has worked as both a professional herb grower and a newspaper journalist. The author of Losing My Mind; Growing Herbs from Seed, Cutting and Root; Basil: An Herb Lover's Guide (with Susan Belsinger); and The Big Book of Herbs (with Arthur O. Tucker), he lives with his wife in Arlington, Virginia.

From Publishers Weekly

DeBaggio's second memoir expands on his first, 2002's Losing My Mind. He turns away from the immediacies of Alzheimer's diagnosis and treatment and toward the past that his illness is gradually obscuring. During the late 1960s and early '70s, DeBaggio struggled as an underpaid reporter, new husband and father in Arlington, Va. Only when he launched a career as a commercial herb grower, working in greenhouses he built in his own suburban backyard, did he find success. An Alzheimer's diagnosis came at the unusually early age of 57. These specifics are rather deeply imbedded in a book composed primarily of simple, moment-to-moment observations, with gentle, cumulative strength and little drama. DeBaggio gives tension to his narrative by shifting back and forth between his past and present, with changes in tense and typography acting as signposts. But things get complicated when he weaves in numerous bits of other prose and poetry, including personal and professional correspondence, his own odd and sudden thoughts (e.g., "This is a county fair of the mind") and quotes from the likes of Beckett, Breton and William Carlos Williams. The book is at its best in describing the particulars of DeBaggio's career as an herb grower: shooing suburban raccoons, teaching orphaned baby robins to feed and fly, ignoring neighbors' skeptical attitudes. The horticultural writing, understated and often poetic, rivals that of Michael Pollard and Jamaica Kincaid and will reward patient readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743250036
• ISBN 13: 9780743250030
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240