These images of Alzheimer's - forgetting, madness, nursing homes - frighten us, make us want to walk the other way. But geriatric psychiatrist Patrick Mathiasen wants us to know that his images have slowly changed as he's worked around the edges of this "thief of memory." Where he once saw no more than the shell of a body, he now sees lives that have unfolded. And amid the undeniable sadness and difficulty, he encounters hope and humor and caring. Dr. Mathiasen's patients tell his story, beginning with the earliest signs of the disease and passing through its stages right up to the end. And we meet a fascinating array of patients: a man who has taken pleasant refuge within his memories of playing baseball during his boyhood in pre-Castro Cuba; an art collector whose meticulous journal begins to make less and less sense as he falls into waters where his memories run together like ink on a page; two sons whose lifelong enmity for one another is put aside as they address themselves to their mother's need for them and for their love. An Ocean of Time also offers insight into the science informing the treatment of Alzheimer's: how the diagnosis is made, how Alzheimer's often masquerades as severe clinical depression, and what promising research is being done in the field.
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Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
Alzheimer's patient Louise Billings's monotonous, ``Little do you know, little do you know,'' seems an apt complaint, for as this small collection of sketchy anecdotes shows, doctors know too little about Alzheimer's to be able to offer anything resembling hope. Geriatric psychiatrist Mathiasen has gathered most of his stories from the inpatient psychiatric unit at Northwestern Hospital in Seattle, Wash. Alzheimer's runs in Mathiasen's own family, and his early memories of visits with his father to a stricken aunt, and the fears these visits aroused, helped to shape his desire to understand this mysterious illness. Alzheimer's disease, says Mathiasen, touches on fears that may be even stronger than the fear of death: the fear of losing our minds, of becoming something not quite human. The patients he describes are still very human--singing bits of opera, dancing an Irish jig, railing at a painting by a hated artist. In one story about a mother and her alienated sons--appropriately titled ``My Babies,'' for that is how she sees them--he shows us its power to tear families apart and also to bring them together. In another, ``The Cuban Baseball Team,'' he contrasts the happiness of the patient, who is reliving the best days of his life as a young ballplayer, with the anguish of his family, who are watching his disintegration. Tucked into the stories are some facts about how Alzheimer's is diagnosed and some information about other conditions, such as clinical depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome, that are sometimes confused with it. But readers hoping to have the enigma of Alzheimer's demystified will be dissatisfied; answers simply don't exist yet. Those hoping for comforting insights will be similarly let down. Mathiasen seems to be curiously removed from his patients and their families, to be almost more a voyeur than a caregiver. Altogether a disappointment. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alzheimer's Disease and the River Styx,
By A Customer
This review is from: An OCEAN OF TIME: Alzheimer's: Tales of Hope and Forgetting (Hardcover)
In ancient mythology the dead began their descent down the river Styx. The river was shrouded in mystery, fear, and doubting. So also with Alzheimer's disease. It often seems that the Alzheimers patient has begun the trip in advance of dying. Their world, like the Styx, seems engulfed in darkness and uncertainty, both spatial and temporal. On such a dark and lonely journey, a guide would be a necessity.On the darkest of days, An Ocean of Time:Alzheimer's:Tales of Hope and Forgetting, is such a guide. The author, Patrick Mathiasen, MD, is the Medical Director of the Northwest Hospital Geriatric Psychiatry Center. Mathiasen weaves together information about the disease process with vignettes from the lives of his Alzheimer's patients. If you are a caregiver looking for an Alzheimer's 101 text, choose another book. An Ocean of Time is geared towards those who have seen their loved one mentally kidnapped and wonder where they are. It assists the caregiver in understanding the "windows" that are typical of the disease. It helps caregivers to dialogue meaningfully with their loved one, especially when those "windows" occur. Indeed, I had a greater sense of hope and imagination about the disease as a result of its mystery. There have been many wonderful books about caring for these patients, but few have invited us to enter into their world, and even fewer to ascribe meaning and hope to the experience. Mathiasen does so with passion. If you are in need of a guide on that dark and lonely river, this is the book for you.
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