Brief Summary Of Lisa Genova's Book Left Neglected

6 Lisa Genova’s book, Left Neglected, is a tale of healing both physically and mentally. In this book, Sarah, the main character, is hurt in a car accident, and is diagnosed with Left Neglect. Left Neglect is the lack of awareness of the visual space to your left. In an interview with Alden Mudge (from bookpage.com) , Genova stated that she wrote Left Neglected because, “ I wanted to use this condition as a metaphor for our crazy lives as a culture… I was very driven to succeed like Sarah… Then when I was 33, I got divorced. That sort of shook things up.” This book accurately portrays the struggle of recovering from an accident and learning to ask for help.
Sarah Nickerson is an average working mom. She has three young children and works full time and often finds herself putting her career before her children. One day, after a frustrating morning of getting her kids ready for school, she is rushing to work and lets herself get distracted by her cell phone. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a hospital with the inability to see anything on her left side. Through her injury, Sarah learns to ask for help from her mom and husband and put her family first.
Sarah learns to put …show more content…
Not only does Sarah have a huge obstacle to overcome; Charlie, Sarah’s oldest child, is diagnosed with ADD early in the book. Both Charlie and Sarah’s persistence and hope is inspirational to everyone. Charlie, especially, was put in a hard position and had to learn how to cope with something that wasn’t going to go away. At one point, Charlie is helping Sarah with her “assignment” from her doctor and in return Sarah helps Charlie with his homework. Charlie says that he wishes he had Sarah’s homework because it was easier. Sarah replies that it isn’t easy for her. They both continue to work at what they are striving towards until they reach their goal. Charlie and Sarah are both fantastic role models for anyone and