Customer Reviews

The House on Beartown Road: Library Edition

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Single mom Elizabeth Cohen records her life as her toddler daughter grows up while her father descends into Alzheimers (and she has sole care of both of them). Cohen finds poetry rather than tragedy as her daughter and father cross paths: daughter Ava surging into consciousness, learning new words by the hour, father Sanford finally forgetting even his name.

I am overwhelmed by the truth of this poetry, because I am in a similar situation: my father-in-law was diagnosed with dementia a few months after my daughter's birth. As Dad has declined, my daughter has thrived. It is undeniably sad. Yet they are central to each other's worlds; even on days when Dad seems to know no one, you can tell he remembers G. You can tell she loves him and he loves her even though they can't speak.

A greater theme in Cohen's book is the power of community; her neighbors help her bear her burdens (chopping firewood, shoveling her driveway, watching Ava), just as she helps her father bear his. Thus, even if you are not directly touched by Alzheimer's or the like, this well-written and touching book is likely to resonate with you too.

May the world still be this way when we are older.

This book is an incredible, fast, fun read. It's heartfelt but often hilarious too. As Elizabeth Cohen manages her rapidly progressing infant and her rapidly regressing dad she tells an amazing story of human survival and will. She reminds us of the comforts of family, of poetry, of neighbors. What I love most about this book is how the author finds the good in a situation where most people would find only heartache. She reminds us of the beauty of everyday life, and of what's important. A celebration of family, parents, kids, of what it means to learn, to think, to be human. I don't usually like memoirs but I highly recommend this one. I've read it twice and couldn't put it down either time.

Every day in my work as a Long-Term Care Insurance Specialist I work with families as they try and develop a Strategy to deal with the the potential for a love one or themsleves needing long term care. In most cases until something happens to one's own family most people are in deniel. "It will happen to someone else but never to me or our family."

I always try to paint a picture for potential clients by using my own families experiences with needing care to make the issues more real. From now on I will just give them a copy of the book. It will do a much better job.

I read the "House On Beartown Road" in one sitting on a rainy Sunday with tears in my eyes as I finally understood how lucky my own family was to have had my mom as a fulltime caregiver to both sets of grandparents as well as my father over a period of years. People like Elizabeth Cohen and my mom are great examples of loving family members that did what needed to be done with grace, dignity and a sense of humor. I didn't understand or fully appreciate the concept of being a caregiver while running around in my on life and watching my mom from a distance but after reading the book I sure did!

I strongly suggest that every adult with aging parents read the book today as tomorrow may be to late. It will make you think in many different ways. For some reason I really think the author wrote the book to help the rest of us to be better prepared to deal with this growing national crisis of aging parents. Thanks to Ms. Cohen.

Th

I've read and reviewed lots of books about Alzheimer's, but I think I can honestly say this is the most beautifully written that I've ever read. Elizabeth Cohen, at the time a single parent, writes of her baby girl Ava's growing and learning at the same time that she write's of her retired Economics professor father's forgetting and his descent into Alzheimer's disease. Set in a rural New York state farmhouse, the events of daily life bring both tears and laughter, and the helpful caring neighbors warm our hearts. Every time I began reading, I didn't want to put down this book, and yet, I didn't want to finish because I knew how I would miss Elizabeth, her Daddy, baby Ava, Jody the helpful caregiver, and all of the wonderful neighbors that surrounded them. Highly recommended, a must read for all caregivers of Alzheimer's patients!

Poignant, honest, beautifully written, this is the story of a woman of 40, her father of 80 and her daughter who is not yet 1. Elizabeth Cohen is truly in the middle as she struggles to care for both her father and her child, while working and trying to maintain some sort of life in an old farmhouse in rural New York. (Her young husband has found the stress too great and has taken off.) The author, who is used to viewing herself as the kind of person who receives help from others, does receive kindness and help from her neighbors, but also develops into a strong and loving person who can cope with life's hardships. As she struggles to keep things going, she stands back occasionally and watches with awe as her father and daughter cross each other in their own journeys, her father backward to a time of knowing/understanding very little, and her daughter forward to a place of knowledge, competence and understanding. The way the little girl and the old man love each other and help each other is also poignantly expressed. This book is unsentimental but emotionally powerfully, and told with a truth and honesty that grab the reader.

The House of Beartown Road is an exceptional nonfiction story that chronicles the decline of the author's father who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. What makes this book so special is the fact that the author is trying to raise her young toddler at the same time she has taken on the responsibility of caring for her father. Set in rural upstate NY, the author is a reporter for the Press and Sun Bulletin in Binghamton. Having moved to an old farmhouse that is far from the city, the author is faced with many personal hardships as her family situation changes. This book is a loving tribute to a once brilliant man, written by his daughter who refuses to give up on him.The author touches over and over again on the relationship that develops between her young daughter and her father , as one is growing intellectually in leaps and bounds and the other is sliding backwards. Anyone who has ever watched a loved one suffering from Alzheimer's understands the heartbreak described by the author, and the deep appreciation for any slight sign that signals awareness of people, events , or even self. This book is a loving gift from Elizabeth Cohen- not only to her dad, but to her daughter, who will somday read it and have a better understanding of who her grandfather was and what he meant to his family! To all of those who call themselves the Sandwich Generation', this book is a must-read!

How do you comfort a friend whose parent is slipping away to Alzheimer's Disease? Can you truly know how one feels when your friend tells you her mom forgets her birthday, her name, her parent-child relationship? That's what I was looking for when I bought this book as a gift for my friend. Maybe it would give my friend a glint of hope and humor with all she is going through. I couldn't give it to her without reviewing its potential for gloom and sadness so I began reading it and couldn't put it down.
Elizabeth Cohen had a way of connecting to me with all the "mind chatter" about her daily living.... mind chatter that we all have....... the worry about our parents, our spouses, our children. I feel I have found a friend in Elizabeth from her writing. I have been given the "Beartown Road" view of coping with a parent who is slipping away. Elizabeth has shown through her writing that with one memory, one tiny memory, there is hope and love.

A House on Beartown Road made me laugh and cry all at the same time. It is one of the most poignant books I've ever read. Cohen is a hero on two fronts: as a single mother, and a caregiver for her father who suffers from Alzheimer's.

It's easy for the reader to see a bit of themselves in Cohen's daily struggles to keep her life and her family's in order. But there are also many moment of joy, whether it's seeing your daughter experience something for the first time or helping her father remember.

A House on Beartown Road is a book I won't soon forget.

I found "The House on Beartown Road" shelved in our local library (Pound Ridge, NY) under Mental Health/Alzheimer's. I don't know who decides these things, but this wonderful memoir ought to be prominently placed along with other contemporary memoirs. Elizabeth Cohen is a fine writer and she deserves recognition for this generous tribute to her 80-year-old father, Sandy, to her daughter -- one year old Ava, and to new-found neighbors on Beartown Road and to friends in the Binghamton, NY, community. Sandy and Ava of these are at opposite ends of the verbal spectrum, one forgetting language and the other learning. Elizabeth Cohen herself is there in the middle, somehow trying to work full time as a reporter, managing day care for the two people who depend on her, figuring out how to survive the winter in one of the nation's true snow-belts, and keeping her own sanity as a harrassed single mother.My own mother is 97 with Alzheimer's and I have a one-year old granddaughter, so this book is close to the bone in many ways. I tell everybody about it. I use it in the memoir course I teach. I want to keep it to survive as a classic memoir and as a year-long account by an un-self-pitying caregiver. Elinore Standard Pound Ridge, NY

Please, everyone, read "The House on Beartown Road." You will surely be affected in some way by Alzheimers in your lifetime and this book will be important to you. For the past year and a half I was the caregiver for my elderly parents, my Dad with Alzheimers. He died in May and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him. Of everything I've read about Alzheimers, this book touched me the most and was the most realistic in terms of the sadness, the poignancy, the fun (yes, sometimes!) and the heartbreak of the disease. Thank you Elizabeth Cohen.