One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing

by Diane Ackerman

Hardcover, 2011

Call number

612.6 ACK

Collection

Nonfiction

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

Publication

W. W. Norton & Company (2011), 336 pages

Description

Ackerman chronicles her novelist husband Paul West's heroic battle to reclaim words and mobility and her tailoring of West's speech therapy to match his spectacular vocabulary and unique intelligence.

User reviews

LibraryThing member nyiper

What a wonderful book in these times of so many growing older in the midst of "you never know what's going to happen next!" That's life. But Ackerman, and of course her husband, Paul, are a pair to behold, admire, and absorb---for their relationship and their abilities to persevere through so much.

One asks, "could I do ANY of that?" One only hopes. Ackerman provides a personal wealth of knowledge to anyone who reads this.

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LibraryThing member dianaoeh

Did he get better or not? That is what keeps you reading this book. This couple's devotion to each other and the intense and literate caregiving by Diane Ackerman are vital in helping author and husband Paul West regain his words after a serious stroke decimates the language area of his brain.

Diane had previously researched and written a book about the brain, giving her an advantage in understanding her husband's injuries.

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LibraryThing member lisaflip

This was a decent book. The author's husband suffers a stroke and is affected by apashia, a language disorder which ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read or write. This is especially problematic for this couple as they are both authors and

stimulated by words, word games and a rich vocabulary. I didn't relate much to their situation but the book was very well written and their story compelling.

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LibraryThing member lynndp

This book is the story of four years in the life of a couple after the husband suffers serious aphasia caused by a stroke. The sense of loss is heightened by the fact that both husband and wife are successful writers for whom word play is like eating or breathing. The tittle "One Hundred Names for

Love" refers to the couples pre-stroke practice of devising novel pet names for each other. The author kept a journal chronicling her husband's frustrations with standard therapy and the non-stop "conversation therapy" that succeeded in guiding him back to his world of words.

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LibraryThing member ammurphy

this would be great before someone had a stroke because it is sort of optomistic but also emphasises how difficult recovery is from aphasia. After the stroke you're too stressed and busy to read it. I found her reporting on the brain helpful in itself for other issues like talking to oneself.

LibraryThing member PattyLee

I may not be the most objective reviewer because I do love a good word salad and I got my fill with this one. Some of the criticisms are indeed valid: she does matter on about the words themselves, the cuddling, and Paul’s love of nudity. The one hundred words of love were cute, outrageous and

sometimes de trop. In spite of all that, I enjoyed the book, not only for the love of words, but for the portrait of the stressors of caregivers, and the astonishing world of the stroke victim from his point of view.

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