A Year on Planet Alzheimer: and a little longer in Canada

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Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Carolyn Steele has produced yet another touching and realistic memoir of her interesting life between Canada and the UK. Again well-written, this time covers her first trek with her son to the Great White North, as she became a caregiver for a lady with Alzheimer's. Surprisingly, there isn't any sorrowful denouement to that experience, as she's forced to shift jobs.

With the title, I sort of expected a tearful, almost tragic story, but Ms Steele surprised me with a happy and wistful tale of the ups and downs of working in a different country. The book was a very enjoyable read, and I hope we get more from Carolyn Steele soon! I stumbled across this book because of the fact that the author's name was so much like my own, and then decided to read it due to the intriguing title.

I really enjoyed this tale of a Brit who comes to Canada with son in tow, to take care of an Alheimer patient.

I think it's the kind of adventure many of us might imagine doing ourselves, yet we don't, so reading about it was a lot of fun. The process of dealing with an Alzheimer patient, the inventive ways to handle situations, and all the experience of living in a new country were a treat to read about, and I really enjoyed Ms. Steele's lively style of writing. Even learned some Brit-speak along the way. A very fun, different kind of read. One person found this helpful. They've gotta do two things to make me sit up and take notice. First, you have to have done something that's actually worthy of writing a memoir about.

That running joke in Tove Jansson's books about Moominpappa writing his memoirs? That really WAS a joke in the fifites. Now, it's business as usual.

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Second, your life can't be the sole purpose of the book's existence; you have to spend at least as much time talking about that bit in Part One as you do about what you ate for lunch every Tuesday. Oh, you thought those were only worth paying attention to in fiction?

Books, editing and more from Carolyn Steele

Try reading Strokes of the Brush Before Bed to find out just how bad a nonfiction book with no pacing or character development can be. Yes, it's a memoir. A Year on Planet Alzheimer fits both bills. It's not a perfect book by any means, and both the jacket copy and the book itself play something of a part in that more on this later , but as far as memoirs go, it's one of the better ones I've read in recent memory; the last one I remember liking this much was Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, which I just checked I read back in Carolyn Steele, at a loose end in her native England, finds herself with wanderlust.

She's always wanted to see Canada, so she starts applying for home care positions. She finds one that seems to suit, caring for the elderly mother of a woman named Pat in the town of Kitchener, Ontario, while Pat is involved with building a house in Newfoundland. After mountains of paperwork, she and her son head off for a two-year stint in Canada. I can't say that's where the weirdness begins, as anyone who's left a country for any amount of time can attest to. But when you're going for that long, well, the paperwork gets worse. But, as expected, culture shock sets in, and Steele keeps a clear enough head about things to report on it, provide a translation guide, and generally keep her wits about her.

As long as she remembers to drive on the correct side of the road.

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Things rarely go as planned, however, and as tensions mount and things that were supposed to go smoothly don't, along with unexpected difficulties popping up how does one transport a bicycle across a country without paying a small fortune? I alluded to the book's biggest failing above, and the irony of it is that had the book not thrown down that particular gauntlet, it would never have occurred to me to make the comparison in question. I don't think Steele was quite up to the task; this is in no small part because Bryson is a travel writer, and any memoir-ish qualities in his writing play third fiddle at best.

Steele is a memoirist who has adopted travel writing as the platform on which she's going to bounce her personal recollections. And I rush to reiterate that she does a very good job with that balance, and this is quite an enjoyable piece of work as a result; even people who aren't fans of memoirs may find this one worth reading, if a little oversold.

I can attest to this firsthand. It was quite fun to be along for the ride with her and her son as they left their homeland of Britain for Canada, negotiating the culture clashes, bureaucracy, odd food, and quirky denizens.

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As an American, I enjoyed learning how much we have in common with Canadians we are often so quick to point out differences , and I might not have seen that in the same light if not for a newcomer's viewpoint. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to do a bit of armchair traveling and slip someone else's life over his or her shoulders. I'm looking forward to reading the next two books of her adventures.

Prior to reading Carolyn's book, I knew little about Canada other than it was up there north of the USA and it was huge.

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However when a good friend of mine emigrated there with his Canadian wife, my curiosity was piqued and I found myself wanting to know more about this country which features so little in the global news despite being the second largest in the world. Carolyn's book provides a fascinating insight into Canada and a little bit of its history from the point of view of a British born woman and her son coming to the country for the first time.

It chronicles her encounter with a culture that is alternatively both comfortingly familiar and also refreshingly modern which, in itself, summarises Canada's complex relationship with both Britain and the USA. The Canadians that she encounters come across as cheerful and patiently willing to both induct and tolerate this newcomer and her exuberant and inquisitive 9 year old son. Carolyn maintains that she is either multi-faceted or easily bored, depending on who is enquiring.

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Her Armchair Emigration series, currently sporting books 1 and 3, will be complete with 'Bed and Breakfast', which was under construction when Queenie, Carolyn's first fictional character, popped into her head. Plus a couple of children's books and some serious stuff about life and death. Find Carolyn on her websites: Consider it a spot more armchair travelling.

Are You an Author? Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biog. Showing 8 Results Books: Volume 2 Queenie Chronicles 19 Jan Available to ship in days. Read this and over 1 million books with Kindle Unlimited. Trucking in English 18 Nov Borrow for free from your Kindle device. Volume 1 Queenie Chronicles 29 Dec A Year on Planet Alzheimer: Brooks and Al Kunz.