![The Leisure Seeker: A Novel by [Zadoorian, Michael]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51sZ8iLyMpL._SY346_.jpg)
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From Publishers Weekly
In this affecting road novel, an elderly married couple leave their Detroit home and take off in their camper for one last adventure together. Ella Robina has more health problems than a third world country, and her husband, John, is suffering from progressive dementia. Despite protests from their adult children and doctors, Ella and John hit the road and head west to Disneyland. By day, they stop off at cheese-ball tourist attractions, and at night they relive old memories by watching slide shows of their previous family vacations. Along the way, they receive unexpected aid from a rueful goth teenager, outmaneuver some roadside predators, get stopped by the police and consider running for it, and have sex. The ultimate decision Ella makes might seem life affirming to some and a callous betrayal to others, but its impossible to deny that Ellas wise, feisty voice turns what could be a sappy melodrama into an authentic and funny love story. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Ella and John Robina, eightysomethings, take off in their Leisure Seeker RV against the will of their son, daughter, and doctors. Destination Disneyland, via Route 66. Ella has refused further treatment for cancer, and John’s Alzheimer’s is four years advanced. So they leave the Detroit suburbs and head west. Ella navigates and narrates their trip—and their lives—while John, who veers from sentience to senility and rage to tenderness, drives. Crumbling, kitschy Route 66 triggers Ella’s thoughts. This is a purely character-driven novel, and Ella is a remarkable creation: she’s honest, tough, strong, funny, usually in pain, cranky, and frightened. Her narration is matter-of-fact, but laced with snarky one-liners. Having braved Chicago’s chaotic Dan Ryan Expressway, she comforts readers: “Between the two of us, we are one whole person.” John is a distressingly realistic portrait of a person with Alzheimer’s; Ella never knows when he’ll have a moment of lucidity or fly into a dangerous rage. Her middle-aged children’s panicked demands that the couple return home will resonate with any adult who has feared for a parent’s well-being. Zadoorian, whose debut novel, Second Hand (2000), was widely praised, has surpassed his initial success. The Leisure Seeker is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, funny, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed. --Thomas Gaughan
