New Book Alert: The Last Moon Before Home by Barbara J. Dzikowski; Moving Dramatic Novel About Alzheimer's Disease and Broken Family Ties

 

New Book Alert: The Last Moon Before Home by Barbara J. Dzikowski; Moving Dramatic Novel About Alzheimer's Disease and Broken Family Ties

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Alzheimer's Disease is a difficult condition to live with, not only for the person who has it, but also for friends, family, and caregivers around them. Little by little, the person that was once a person with memories and a past, forgets pieces of their lives until they become a complete stranger. They do not know the people around them with whom they once shared a life.

That is the situation faced by Walt Ziemny and his family in Barbara J. Dzikowski's moving dramatic novel, The Last Moon Before Home. Walt's diagnosis comes after his bouts of forgetfulness become more frequent. Walt doesn't want to admit it, but as he begins to forget his wife and children's names and confuses past and present, it becomes apparent he has Alzheimer's.

 

His family deals with his condition in their own way. His wife, Mary, tries to stay loyal to him following the vow "into death do us part," but feels drained by the responsibility. His younger son, Ricky an artist and recovering alcoholic, tries to maintain a cheerful front. Meanwhile, his older son, Leon, a sometimes self-centered businessman, is in denial about the disease.

The Ziemnys need a caregiver for Walt. Enter Willow Trudeau. Willow has had some nursing training and endless patience. She would be a perfect companion and caregiver for Walt. She is able to communicate with Walt with patience and understanding towards his outbursts and forgetfulness.

There is also another reason that Willow is there. Her mother, Noel died in childbirth and Willow never knew her or her father's identity. Reading her mother's journal, she comes across the name of her birth father: Leon Ziemny. She pretends to be Noel's niece, rather than her daughter.  Once, she is hired by the Ziemny Family, Willow clicks with them, particularly Walt who calls her "Mis "

The Last Moon Before Home is a definite tear jerker of a book. It is definitely one that the Reader needs to have tissues nearby just in case. The hardest parts to read are the ones that take place from Walt's point of view.

Dzikowski captures the voice of someone going through Alzheimer's rather well without resorting to theatrics. Walt gets easily frustrated and irritated by the people around him. He goes off on mental tangents of the past caught up in a memory of his childhood. Then, he returns to the present with no memories of the world in front of him.

 In one passage, Walt watches Bill Clinton's denial of having sex with Monica Lewinskny. He then drifts into disconnected thoughts about his high school days, his Catholic faith, including some of the Polish prayers of his childhood, and his thoughts about death. When he returns to the present, Walt mentally calls the President on the TV, "President Kennedy."

 It is heart wrenching to read about this man's mind and personality slowly being annihilated by this disease that transforms him into someone his friends and family don't know and he doesn't kno, himself.

Willow also goes through her own discovery, that of her own family and identity. She helps the Ziemny Family reopen old feelings that they had towards Leon and Noel's early marriage and divorce. As compared to the Ziemnys, Willow is not near as developed as a character except through trying to learn about her family. However, she is a catalyst to help the Ziemny Family through their own individual crises.

Walt grows to love Willow unconditionally even though he had trouble distinguishing between her and her late mother. He sees a kindred spirit who is able to look through  the disease and recognize the kind man inside. 

 Mary has to recognize her own arrogance and snobbishness which helped drive a wedge between the couple and put Leon down a path of marital unhappiness. Ricky also has to deal with his unrequited feelings for Noel as well as the unhappiness in his life which resulted in his alcoholism and subsequent health problems.

By far the character that goes through the most change is Leon. He starts out completely narcissistic and concerned more about material gain and retaining the happiness of his spoiled unfaithful second wife, Stella. He is impatient with his father's lapses in memory, rapidly changing emotions, and repetitive questions. He tries to have as little to do with Walt's disease as possible.  

After a death in the family,,Leon becomes more involved. He works at the family inn. He bonds with Willow rediscovering the love that he had for her mother. He also becomes more patient and loving towards Walt. One passage during 9/11 conveys this. Walt constantly asks if planes fell from the sky and Leon answers "Maybe somewhere, but not here." They talk about other things in a roundabout manner, but Walt returns to asking about the planes as if for the first time. Leon has finally learned to speak his father's language and understand  the father he was is still inside the sick man.

The book becomes unbearably sad as the family suffers tremendous loss. However, ties that were once broken become stronger and the family becomes closer better people in the face of illness, loss, and death.