We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The writing is vivid, beautiful, even nearly poetic at times. BUT it is all third-person, character point of view internal musings. There is little or no dialogue. There is a lot of telling and not enough showing in the character development. We know how they think and the petty things that drive them to make certain decisions, but only because we are told. We do not discover from their actions.
Secondly, this is a book that deals with early onset Alzheimer’s but in a very frustrating and almost unsympathetic way. I forced myself to read the first 200 pages because it won awards and was recommended by an agent. But it breaks all the rules they teach you in Novel-writing 101, and I found it so frustrating to read that I set it aside to read something I could enjoy.
Claire Hart-Palumbo 