Moral Hazard- Kate Jennings

This week, I read a book called Moral Hazard by Kate Jennings. This book is about the life of a woman who has to persevere with her husband's struggle with Alzheimer's disease and her Wall Street job taking off. The book is written in an amazing way because you can really notice how this disease affects people but how they still have to carry on with their everyday lives. We are shown how your priorities change, and how people's life change and what they have to do to help others. Throughout the book, the main character was hurt a lot by her husband's image. He forgot her name, where he slept, and frankly anything in his normal routine. It was very interesting whilst reading it, because it showed that Alzheimer's disease could just make an experienced and developed person, a baby again. The way that the book was wrote made the reader, especially me, feel like they were going through the same dilemma as the main character was.

Throughout the book, the author kept on pointing out how the man with Alzheimer's was feeling. This was very clever because she took the main character, and even though she was a hero in everyone else's eyes, the victim sometimes didn't feel like that was true. It was interesting, because the whole time the author took two sides and it wasn't so 'biased' as every other book is. I have never read a book like this, but sometimes I found it frustrating because I was confused on who the victim or hero was. Although, I made my own decision, the text sometimes portrayed a confusing plot and therefore, it was hard to realize whom the antagonist and the protagonist were. 

I really enjoyed this book because it taught me a lot about not only the victims of Alzheimer's disease but also about the family and friends that witness it. I was taught that it is very hard to see a person everyday slowly deteriorate and that although we only think about the hardness of the victims, it is sometimes equally as hard for family and friends, physically and emotionally. Alzheimer’s disease is ‘a hidden killer’, as the book inferred. It doesn’t kill you but it basically makes you become a fragile baby again, where all your life accomplishments are gone and you can’t get them back.

Overall, Kate Jennings made an amazing account about the life of people involved with Alzheimer’s disease. I really enjoyed reading the book and I would definitely recommend it to people. It raises awareness to this disease and causes the reader to become so much more grateful. It also was a great read that portrayed “carry on and don’t stop”, which is the main message that the main character endures. Overall a great read!