I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.
Switzy by Emma Cline is a gripping novel by the author of The Guest. Like The Guest, Switzy is unsettling. Readers with loved ones who suffer or suffered from dementia may find it triggering.
Cline is able to get inside the failing brain of David, a wealthy businessman who was once highly respected and an asset to an unnamed company. He was an important person. But now, he is necessarily accompanied everywhere by a hired male companion/keeper who navigates his memory lapses, wandering, and irrational flashes of irritability, anger, and paranoia with patience and understanding.
The pain in this extraordinary novel comes from David’s awareness of his advancing dementia and his efforts to say his last goodbyes to people to whom he was once close. But he finds he may not have been as significant to them as he thought. Did he lead a worthwhile life–this important person? Or not?
Cline does a remarkably empathetic job exploring the broken thoughts of a dementia sufferer in a way that is believable, beautifully written, heart-breaking, and terrifying. Highly recommended.
