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The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer's

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It is a noble truth that we all die and that the moment of our death is unknown. John Thorndike explores this essential inevitability with searing honesty, fierce grace, deep compassion, and a journalist's curiosity. By guiding his father on the 92-year-old's final journey, the author confronts nagging and unresolved questions about his own childhood while simultaneously entering a powerful realignment with the constellation of his entire family--and the trajectory of his own life. Thorndike displays a novelist's love of language, a storyteller's eye for detail, a detective's instinct for sleuthing, and a son's enduring love for the man who molded him in ways that have John alternately smiling and fuming. If you've ever lost a parent to dementia, as I have, you will identify at once with the harrowing experiences the author describes in this elegant and compelling book. More importantly, you will recognize and appreciate the cascade of profound challenges, both physical and mental, that unavoidably befall the caregiver as well as the patient. It is from this rich and freshly disturbed psychic soil that John Thorndike, a life-long farmer in addition to being a talented writer, grows in ways that he is brave enough to share. We are wiser for it. And Joe would be proud.

I live in Athens Ohio, the same town as the author. When I saw a copy in the local bookstore window, the word Alzheimer's caught my eye, along with the very cool retro cover. My father is in a nursing home, suffering from this disease along with the after affects of two major strokes. I've read half a dozen texts on the medical attributes of the disease but this book presented a different viewpoint.

I quickly found myself lost in the incredible story of how caring intimately for ones parent can lead you to discover so much about your own self. Or, at least it leads John Thorndike to have this slowly revealed to him through the long days of care giving. I was also impressed at how engrossed I was in a subject that should have left me depressed but instead I felt uplifted by the experiences the author relayed. The book is a touching journey about going home and finding your place in a family. Although John emotionally sided many years with his mother, in caring for his father the truth of his character is revealed, not through conversation, but through everyday acts, which illustrate the gracious qualities his dad possessed.

The story of Mr. Thorndike's childhood and family in and of itself is very interesting, from his father's brilliant career in magazine publishing to his mother's secretive and devastating sex life, I found the tale of his past to never be far from the situation present. I'm thrilled to see he has an earlier memoir, Another Way Home, in which I can read more about his turn at fatherhood.

Would highly recommend The Last of His Mind to anyone interested in family dynamics, exploring your own personality by examining your past, caring for an elderly parent, an in-depth look at Alzheimer's and anyone who likes to curl up with a good story.

The Last Year of His Life is as much about living and rememberances as it is about learning to cope with Alzheimer's and death. It relates the sacrifice of a son who spends the last year of his father's life with him in the family homestead and how he copes and finds peace with his father and himself. There are many good lessons here for those with aging parents with or without the added burden of Alzheimer's and it is well worth the read.

I first heard of writer John Thorndike years ago in Santa Fe. A friend of mine at the public library called and said--I just read a great novel by a guy who lives here...It was THE POTATO BARON, which indeed I did love.
I just read Thorndike's memoir about moving to Cape Cod to live with his father who is dying of Alzheimer's. I admit I like books about extremis--death on Everest, survival--and books abut disease. So this would have intrigued me in any case.
But really the pleasure in THE LAST OF HIS MIND is the writing and sensibility. The author is both honest and kind. The strange peace and claustrophobia of taking care of someone who is dying is a lot like being home all day with an infant, and Thorndike captures that. He loves his father, but hopes he won't die before the writer is finished with his subject, not just the son with his father.
Too many such books tend to lament--how could such a brilliant person, oh what a terrible disease. By contrast, Thorndike seems more to observe. It isn't exactly acceptance but rather the writer's narrow path between wanting things to be one way and seeing how they really are.
John Thorndike has written another book about caretaking, an earlier one about raising his son Janir---ANOTHER WAY HOME. This book is a kind of companion to that one. Full of insight, secrets, wishes, fears, and an understanding of what it means to be a person--and superb writing.
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For more reviews see the literary blog Miriam's Well ([...])

The Last of His Mind is Thorndike's account of caring for his father during his final year before dying of Alzheimer's. It is much more than a book about dementia, though there is plenty of information about it. It is an examination of his father's life -- he was an author and the editor of Life magazine in its glory years; his parents' inner lives and his own upbringing. When I saw it, I was not inclined to read it, thinking that a book about about Alzheimer's would be depressing and slow going. I picked it up and was immediately drawn into it. I read it in the next day -- a real page turner. The lives described -- Thorndike's and his parents' are interesting and moving. It is as good a memoir as I have recently read.

This Alzheimer's memoir expands into a portrait of old age, dying and dementia. But you won't be horrified by it, you'll be fascinated.

After John Thorndike takes his ninety-year-old father to visit a friend in a nursing home, his father makes one request: "Don't ever put me in place like that." And the author never does. Instead, he moves to his father's house and looks after him for the last year of his life, as Joe Thorndike grows more forgetful and more distant.

The author describes, in beautifully-written passages, the crushing progress of dementia. But he also explores his parents' marriage. He writes about his mother's mischievous years, about his father's devotion to his children, and about Joe Thorndike's fear of "broken hearts, emotions and feelings." It's a rich, disarming portrait of family life.

It comes to a close at Joe Thorndike's death, with the author's hand on his father's chest at the moment his heart stops beating. I've read and reread this scene. We're all headed for something similar, and while death remains a mystery, Thorndike describes it--and his father--with a mixture of tenderness, dismay and elation. Sometimes this book lifted me right out of my seat: I had to stand up and walk around, just to think it over.

And while on the first level this is a book about dementia, it also applies to other diseases. I've been through something similar with my husband, who died at 59 of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease.) The complex demands of caregiving, all of which I experienced with my husband, are all called up in this memoir, and with surprising candor. When the author is frustrated or annoyed or downright angry, he doesn't hide it. We hear, through his completely understandable reactions, how painful this job can be. But also how rewarding.
The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer's

The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer's comes from a managing editor of Life who at age 92 in the space of six months stopped reading, writing or carrying on detailed conversations. His one wish was to remain in his home - and his son John left his own home and moved in to help care for him in the face of Alzheimer's. His son's final year with his father offers a candid survey of the disease's progression and makes for a survey perfect for any general lending library.