Bound Together Book Club
They say you cannot judge a book by its cover, but I most definitely did when I first spotted Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen. On the cover is a beautiful loon, and I immediately recalled one of my all-time favorite movies, On Golden Pond. As I perused the inside jacket cover, I realized the book’s setting takes place on the fictional Catwood Pond in the Adirondack Mountains. I decided that it was close enough to New Hampshire in the movie. Sold!
The novel blends family life with a coming-of-age theme and centers on a daughter becoming the caregiver for her father who has Alzheimer’s disease. While you may think this story sounds depressing, I assure you this rare novel will reach inside you and leave its mark on your heart. There were places in the book when I teared up, but there were also places where I laughed aloud.
Cricket Campbell is 26 years old and works for a wellness company. She does not love her job in New York City and finds herself stuck. Stuck in a job where she says, “We’ve conflated health with vanity. It is not that I don’t believe in healing. I just don’t believe you can buy it for $78 an ounce.” She is also stuck in moving past a tragedy that happened a decade ago. Returning to Catwood Pond is the last thing she had planned to do. When her sister, Nina, who has been taking care of her dad, has an opportunity to study abroad, the two sisters start looking at long-term care facilities for their father, Arthur.
Cricket decides she wants to return home and assume the role of caregiver. She soon realizes her father possesses a rare gift and, as he is losing his grasp on the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. This gift brings on a cast of characters who are drawn to Arthur, the oracle whose words and wisdom reshape her — and the reader’s — thinking.
Told in a dual-timeline fashion, the novel is not one with flashy plot twists but with a slow and steady unfolding emotional truth. We learn through this dual timeline the events that shaped Cricket and the events that tore her apart. As she begins to remember who she once was, she realizes the path going forward often starts with going back.
Themes of strength and compassion, hope and despair, and the selfless act of caregiving fill the pages of this story. This book is not just a book about Alzheimer’s. It is a book that is captivating and unforgettable. You will love the cast of characters, including cat Dominic. I give it a five-star rating.
