MEDIA COVERAGE

What People Are Saying

The last chapter is stunning in both senses of the word, gorgeous and shocking. Saunders’s awareness of her own mortality has turned her into an omniscient eye. She imagines the fate of the universe as it unspools — the sun becoming a black dwarf, the Andromeda Galaxy merging with the Milky Way. How she’ll miss it. “I do not want,” she writes, “to go away.” — New York Times

“The book is remarkable not only for its fiercely honest, sometimes-poetic portrayal of mental decline, but also for the way the author effectively celebrates ‘the magisteria of a mind’…. A courageous, richly textured, and unsparing memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review 

Saunders writes bravely about her early-onset dementia diagnosis, and nicely bridges the intensely personal experience of her failing mind with examinations of neurological science. Her discussion of whether and when to pursue assisted suicide is smart and does not diminish the hopeful voice of a self-described “Doña Quixote” as she fights her mental descent with dignity. — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Gerda Saunders gives the reader an intimate, revealing account of living with dementia. [She] approaches some of the most difficult questions a human being can face with clarity and wisdom. MEMORY’S LAST BREATH somehow transmutes “bottomless dread” into remarkable insight. —Shelfawareness 

“Saunders’ own story isn’t over, and that’s part of its poignancy…. Her book is a tribute to the value of life.”—Columbus Dispatch

In Memory’s Last Breath, “[Saunders] approaches the subject, her own mind, with brilliance and not the slightest touch of self-pity…. This memoir is utterly compelling.” —Dayton Daily News

Memory’s Last Breath is a testament to perseverance, a weaving together of past and present experiences and an exploration of a changing identity. Memory’s Last Breath shows that there can be life, joy and accomplishments after a dementia diagnosis.—Alzheimers.net

Memory’s Last Breath “ (with its astonishing subtitle: “Field Notes on My Dementia”)…blends meditations on memory and identity with brain science, rooted by the writer’s anthropologic jottings of daily misadventures from her befuddled brain.” —The Salt Lake Tribune

 “This courageous and singular book describes both the indignities inscribed in the erosion of memory and the surprising grace to be found in that experience. At once observer and subject, Gerda Saunders demonstrates how a powerful intellect can remain undiminished even as other mental capacities are compromised. Her book’s lessons in dignity will be invaluable to anyone facing the complex meanings of dementia.” – Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree 

“[A] deeply emotional and humbling memoir…a work of breathtaking defiance.” – Booklist, starred review

“The abrupt loss of everyday memory due to brain injury is swiftly and seriously unsettling. Its slower, subtle decline, the hallmark of dementia, provides time for introspection on its troubling trajectory. Gerda Saunders has given us a window into that chilling, yet poignant, psychological reality. Memory’s Last Breath is personal, lucid, and inspiring.” – Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, author of Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience 

“Navigating the onset of her own dementia with intelligence and charm, Gerda Saunders has written an engaging mélange of reflection, family history and quest. Memory’s Last Breath is a surprising and subtly triumphant contribution to the literature of recollection.” – Honor Moore, author of The Bishop’s Daughter 

“Saunders…writes bravely about her early-onset dementia diagnosis, and nicely bridges the intensely personal experience of her failing mind with examinations of neurological science…. Her evocative writing shows her to be a researcher and craftswoman.” – Publishers Weekly

“The extraordinary order exerted here, the Herculean effort at reconstruction, and the great erudition on display all add up to something like a miracle in light of the unraveling so powerfully evoked in the “field notes.” Against the backdrop of several affecting stories—a family’s history, a romance that leads to a lifelong love, and the evolution of an absorbing consciousness—we encounter the heroic grace with which the author meets her fate head on. Saunders’ assertion of will in the face of oblivion takes on a lyrical grandeur as it heads toward its gorgeous conclusion, with shades of Molly Bloom’s emphatic affirmations to close out Ulysses.” – Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves

“Gerda Saunders’ Memory’s Last Breath is not only a how-to manual for navigating the emotional and physiological terrain of dementia—an illness that effects the daily lives and hopes of millions—but a highly compelling account of the life of the mind, its developments, repetitions, omissions, and flourishes. Through eloquent, unwavering prose, Saunders guides us through the horrors and humors of an illness that is slowly erasing her mental and physical memory; her insights are lessons in longevity. Above all things, Memory’s Last Breath is indelible—a testament to the capacity of language both in a writer’s life and a reader’s.”
– Ann Neumann, author of The Good Death for Beacon