A raw, unsentimental and passionately written memoir about trying to care for a parent with Alzheimer’s

When her once-glamorous and witty novelist-mother got Alzheimer's, Eleanor Cooney moved her from her beloved Connecticut home to California in order to care for her. In tense, searing prose, punctuated with the blackest of humor, Cooney documents the slow erosion of her mother's mind, the powerful bond the two shared, and her own descent into drink and despair.

But the coping mechanism that finally serves this eloquent writer best is writing, the ability to bring to vivid life the memories her mother is losing. As her mother gropes in the gathering darkness for a grip on the world she once loved, succeeding only in conjuring sad fantasies of places and times with her late husband, Cooney revisits their true past. Death in Slow Motion becomes the mesmerizing story of Eleanor's actual childhood, straight out of the pages of John Cheever; the daring and vibrant mother she remembers; and a time that no longer exists for either of them.

This is not just a story of decline—it is a fierce, unforgettable portrait of a life fully lived.

Alzheimer’s Memoir: A searing, first-person account of the slow erosion of a brilliant novelist’s mind and the daughter who tried to save her from the gathering darkness.
Unflinching Honesty: Cooney refuses to sentimentalize caregiving, documenting her own descent into drink and despair with the same raw clarity she applies to her mother’s illness.
Vivid Family Memoir: Through writing, the author resurrects the past, painting a portrait of her daring, vibrant mother and a childhood straight out of the pages of John Cheever.
Grief and Dark Humor: An exploration of profound loss, punctuated by the blackest of humor that reveals the absurd, heartbreaking reality of watching a loved one disappear.