{"id":258,"date":"2020-12-03T11:34:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T11:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/?p=258"},"modified":"2020-12-03T11:34:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T11:34:05","slug":"alzheimers-and-a-spoon-by-liz-breslin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/2020\/12\/03\/alzheimers-and-a-spoon-by-liz-breslin\/","title":{"rendered":"“Alzheimer\u2019s and a Spoon” by Liz Breslin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alzheimer\u2019s and a Spoon \u2013 Liz Breslin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New Zealand-based poet Liz Breslin\u2019s first full collection she turns her attention to her own grandmother\u2019s experience with Dementia. Her Polish babcia,<\/em> Manuela was a devout Catholic, a soldier in the Warsaw uprising and an incredibly interesting women. In these 75 short poems Breslin documents her life, her experience of Alzheimer\u2019s and her death. She includes several poems based on the research and case notes of Alois Alzheimer, the German psychiatrist and neuropathologist credited with first discovering the disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peppered with photographs illustrating parts of her grandmother\u2019s story and intriguingly shaped word poems, the collection isn\u2019t afraid to play with form. Snippets from recorded interviews with Breslin\u2019s grandmother are woven into the poetry, whilst in other places, Alzheimer\u2019s own notes are presented as found poems. As the poet skips from one form to the other, dipping in and out of found text, thoughts, narrative and impression she effectively conveys a feeling of confusion and disorientation; a most fitting evocation for a poetry collection concerned with exploring the experience of Dementia. There\u2019s a sense here of language and narrative falling apart; \u201cwhere are they off to, these words\/ I am losing?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Breslin\u2019s main focus is the gradual erosion of her grandmother\u2019s memory. I was particularly impressed by the variety of metaphors and images she uses to express this gradual loss. In Eulogy at the Oxford Oratory<\/em>, memory is powerfully and tenderly equated with a set of her grandmother\u2019s rosary beads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWarm with memory, some will<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

spill. Some I\u2019ll keep in corners,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

hidden glimmers. Much has been lost.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alzheimer\u2019s and a Spoon<\/em> is an honest, warm and occasionally funny look at what it\u2019s like to watch a loved one forget their own past. It explores issues of culture, distance, language  and history through the lens of Dementia. There\u2019s a big life and a lot of story tucked between the lines of Breslin\u2019s short poems. When, at the beginning of dichotomy<\/em>, she writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease pass me a scrumpled ball through the bars<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

secret me the memories you don\u2019t speak<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear the whispers of your stalwart war<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but never from your tongue, never for real<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it\u2019s just stories, right?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breslin gives us a little insight into the mammoth task she\u2019s set herself; telling the story of a woman who can no longer tell her own story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alzheimer\u2019s and a Spoon was published by Otago University Press in 2017 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alzheimer\u2019s and a Spoon \u2013 Liz Breslin In New Zealand-based poet Liz Breslin\u2019s first full collection she turns her attention to her own grandmother\u2019s experience with Dementia. Her Polish babcia, Manuela was a devout Catholic, a soldier in the Warsaw uprising and an incredibly interesting women. In these 75 short poems Breslin documents her life, her experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,10,6,39,29,14],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-alzheimers","tag-elderly","tag-family","tag-new-zealand","tag-poetry","tag-woman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dementiafiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}