Booklife Review

In this loving but unflinching memoir, Larkin shares hard-won lessons for caregivers that she learned caring for her husband who was diagnosed with dementia. She reflects on a love that, as the title suggests, endured, and offers clear-eyed accounts of their experiences as his illness progressed over years, with an illuminating emphasis on the tough—and sometimes life-saving—decisions that caregivers face. Her transparent and vulnerable storytelling always "skewed toward a wife's perspective,” Larkin's emotional memories of her hard final years with her beloved husband will touch reader's hearts, all while offering guidance for caring for loved ones facing similar diagnoses.

Pulled together from notes, emails, and journal pages written over a decade, Enduring is both heart-warming and heart-breaking, an exploration of all that it takes to take care of a partner who it’s difficult to leave alone for long. In Larkin’s telling, it’s not all bleak: “On the days when I saw him smile, when he experienced at least a few moments of joy, it felt like my new purpose in life was being fulfilled,” she writes. A similar sense of heartening warmth powers her accounts of their endearing love story, from a charming meet-cute at a yogurt shop to the life-changing day of the diagnosis that penetrated their "happiness bubble.”

Delving into life at home in the early years of Lee's diagnosis and his last years at a memory care facility, Larkin offers insight into the effects of dementia, the struggles with everyday activities such as eating and sleeping, and the sadness of watching someone you love lose pieces of themselves everyday. Sharing the importance of a positive support group of friends and people experienced in caregiving, her own health scares and how it affected her routine with her husband, and the stress, worry, and responsibility placed upon caregivers, Larkin has written an inviting resource that highlights—and will help readers face—the ups and downs of being a caregiver.

Takeaway: Emotional memoir of marriage, dementia, and lessons for caregivers

Comparable Titles: Theresa Wilbanks's Navigating the Caregiver River, Julie Smith's Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-