"Fiction is a place you get to walk in someone else’s shoes," said author Lisa Genova to an audience of nearly 350 people who came to hear the New York Times bestselling writer speak at Forest View Auditorium, Thursday evening, October 18, as part of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library’s (AHML) One Book, One Village (OBOV) community read. Genova talked about her desire to write stories that shed light on subjects that can be difficult to talk about like ALS, a neurological disease that is central to her novel Every Note Played, the library’s 2018 OBOV book selection.
"I’ve always been interested in the brain and how it works and sometimes breaks, said Genova, who has a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. “To really understand the brain, I had to become a storyteller.”
During her solo 45-minute presentation, Genova thanked attendees for participating in the library’s fifth annual all-community read. Since late August when AHML first announced Every Note Played, copies of the book have circulated close to 1,700 times.
“Usually when I do events like these, few people have read the book,” Genova joked. “So this is amazing.”
Genova then proceeded to take the audience on her personal journey from scientist to storyteller recalling how her grandmother’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease caused Genova to dig deeper and question, “What does it feel like to have Alzheimer’s?”
Through hours of research and personal encounters, Genova found the answer and used this knowledge to write her debut novel, Still Alice, in 2007. Eventually heralded as groundbreaking for its honest and human portrayal of an otherwise scary and complicated disease, Still Alice became a New York Times bestseller. In 2014, Still Alice was made into a movie and earned Julianne Moore an Oscar for best actress.
“A story about Alzheimer’s is the place where we have the opportunity to become familiar with the unfamiliar,” said Genova. “It moves you from sympathy to empathy. Empathy is the feeling where we collapse the distance between us.”
Building upon the success of Still Alice, Genova went on to write Left Neglected, Love Anthony and Inside the O’Briens - books that take readers into the world of neurological diseases through compelling characters and real-life human encounters.
Every Note Played continues this exploration of science and storytelling. Genova portrays Richard, a 45-year-old world-renowned classical pianist, who finds himself suddenly diagnosed with ALS. Karina, his ex-wife, who at one time had a promising music career of her own, becomes Richard’s reluctant caregiver.
“When writing I always want to raise the stakes as high as possible but always within the realm of possibility,” said Genova. “For Richard that meant facing his legacy and what truly mattered.”
“While the book is about ALS the disease,” Genova added, “It is also about the things we all wrangle with – fear, blame, regret.”
Following her presentation, Genova took questions from the audience and shared some closing thoughts about the importance of talking about difficult subjects and making sure our personal relationships are intact.
“Sometimes it takes a personal crisis to step back and ask how am I living,” Genova said then added. “It now gives me purpose for what I do. I’m writing these stories so they can become accessible to people and not so scary.
An Evening with Author Lisa Genova was supported, in part, by the Friends of the Library.