Left Neglected
By Lisa Genova
I got this book as part of a parcel for my birthday, so it was a complete surprise as to what books I would get. This book is really not my usual thing; it’s a chick-lit focused on a woman who has it all until an accident makes her reflect on how she’s been living (don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler; it’s on the blurb.)
If I’m honest, I didn’t think I would enjoy this book. How wrong I was! It took me four days to finish this book, but I read most of it in one night! I read it on holiday, which is the perfect place. When I saw the title, I didn’t realise it would depict the actual struggle of the main character coping with a brain condition called Left Neglect after a car accident. It was really gripping to take in how she dealt with this and how she overrode the little voice from her old life who tried to push her back and essentially remove all the progress she had already made.
I’m sure everyone has that little voice in their head with a running commentary on what they’re doing, and whether it’s right or wrong depending on that voice’s reasonings. This book really makes you think about what you value in life and what you’re making time for. In this case, the main character, Sarah, realises she barely knows her children and wasn’t making enough time to be with them; prioritising her work made her forget about the important things in life. It is a cliché, but I suppose it’s a cliché for a reason. These kinds of books don’t make you think until you realise you are. They are misleading in their thought-provoking content, as in you don’t realise they have any!
I’d say this is a feel-good book, but I’m not sure that it is. At least, it takes almost the entire book to get to that point. Depending on your view, it might not end the way you think. Does she get her old life back, or does she decide to progress to a new life? You won’t know until you get to the end. I was kept guessing the whole way. Either way, the book is rounded off nicely, with a satisfying ending. No cliff-hangers expecting the reader to buy the whole series. Just a nice, neat, tied-up-with-a-bow ending that you’re happy with even if it’s not what you as a reader wanted it to be.
As always, the Wye Review recommends you purchase this book from your local independent bookshop.
Online you can use Hive or Bookshop.org, and if you’re lucky enough to have a local bookshop they’ll always gladly order a copy in for you. You can even borrow a copy from a library, again, if you’re lucky enough to have one near you.
You can read more from Isabella here; she has written other reviews as well as other articles on various topics.
