The House on Beartown Road

August 2, 2004
Dunne's gentle, melodic voice is the perfect match for this poignant memoir, which describes the author's struggle to care for her infant daughter and her Alzheimer's-stricken father. The sprawling New York farmhouse on Beartown road seemed like the perfect place for Cohen and her husband, Shane, to raise their baby, Ava. But a month after Cohen's father comes to live with them, Shane abruptly abandons the family, leaving Cohen to care for both Ava and her rapidly deteriorating father during a harsh, blizzard-filled winter. Dunne's narration is heartfelt and sincere, so much so that listeners will be fooled into thinking that Cohen is conveying her frustrations, triumphs and sorrows first hand. Dunne also captures the creaky, elderly voice of Cohen's father and the high, piping tones of little Ava. With its skillful narration and lyrical prose, this moving audiobook will linger with listeners long after the last disc has been played. Based on the Random hardcover (Forecasts, Feb. 17, 2003).

February 17, 2003
In this moving yet unsentimental memoir, Cohen chronicles the year her aging father, Sanford, suffering from mid-to-late-stage Alzheimer's, came to live with her and her baby, Ava, in a New York State farmhouse. The three endure a cold winter, Ava's teething and the ravages of Alzheimer's. Sanford, a retired economics professor, retains his physical health while his mind deteriorates, a process Cohen—a Binghamton Press
and Sun-Bulletin
reporter—describes in detail and with compassion, even as he loses the ability to know her ("I am having something of a blackout. Perhaps you can remind me who you are?"). Ava learns to walk and talk while Sanford forgets how to climb stairs and struggles with his vocabulary (when he can't remember the word "water," he substitutes "the liquid substance from the spigot"). "Daddy walks around now this way, dropping pieces of language behind him, the baby following, picking them up." Naturally, life's difficult. Sanford misses his wife, who lives with Cohen's sister on the other side of the country; Cohen's husband abandons them early on and she struggles to find help from local social services. Even though "each day arches numerous times toward disaster," the trio survives, even thrives. Cohen takes pleasure in her daughter, outings in parks, friends' and neighbors' generosity and the "memory project"—her attempt to catalogue her father's stories from his childhood, war years in the Pacific and teaching career. With splashes of humor and occasional—and understandable—self-pity, Cohen's fluid prose lifts her forceful story to a higher level, making it a tribute to her father and her family.