Review of "The Vanishing Family: A Story of Fate, Love, and the Disappearing Mind" by Robert Kolker

  

I previously read journalist Robert Kolker's book Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, about the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Six sons (out of twelve children) were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Kolker tells the Galvins' story, including the search for genetic markers for the disease, and the family's contribution to the study of mental illness.


The Galvin family

In 'The Vanishing Family', Kolker relates the story of another family that carries the gene for a hereditary illness, in this case frontotemporal dementia. It took decades for the clan to understand their plight, and Kolker relates their tale step by harrowing step.

For privacy, Kolker uses only first names.

Irish-Catholic couple Ollie and Jean were born in the late 1920s, married in 1950, and settled in a Missouri suburb called Webster Groves. Over the next 15 years, Jean became the stay-at-home mom of seven children, and Ollie worked at a series of engineering jobs, hoping to start his own business some day.



By 1967, financial difficulties and job opportunities led Ollie and Jean to settle in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, and they eventually had a total of nine children: Kathy, Christy, Sue, Dutch, Mary, Peggy, Scott, Jenny, and Barb.



Kolker writes, "Jean was something of a wonder, filled with optimism and energy, reading, gardening, and playing bridge with Ollie and their friends. She shopped for the food on a strict budget, making the calculations and lists in her head, and cooked everything for the family. She made her own donuts and pizza from scratch, and served up enchiladas when they were still considered an exotic foreign dish."



By her late forties, however, Jean became increasingly withdrawn and depressed. As time passed, Jean stopped dressing up every day like she used to to; quit going to the hair salon; neglected her hygiene; became silent; drank heavily; didn't pay bills; played solitaire and watched game shows all day; paid little attention to the children; said yes to every sales call, resulting in multiple subscriptions to the same magazines; and generally made poor decisions.



The changes were obvious to Ollie, the children, and the neighbors, who usually attributed Jean's behavior to Ollie's flagrant cheating.



Jean continued to decline for two decades, until she neglected her breast cancer for so long she couldn't be successfully treated. Jean died in 1990.

As it turns out, Jean was the first victim (in the immediate family) of frontotemporal dementia. This wasn't diagnosed until the late 1990s, however, after Ollie and Jean's daughter Christy developed symptoms similar to those of her mother. Christy was a successful marketing executive, wife, and mother before she fell ill, but her life fell apart afterwards.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is an illness in which the brain's frontal and temporal lobes gradually degenerate, causing people to lose their personality, judgment, language, and self-control. Symptoms usually begin in a victim's forties, and unlike 'old-age' dementia, patients don't lose their memories.



Over time, five of Ollie and Jean's nine children developed FTD. Some family members submitted blood/saliva samples for genetic testing, and researchers found their FTD resulted from an autosomal dominant gene called V337M, which causes tau mutations (tangles) in brain proteins. An autosomal dominant gene means there's a 50:50 chance a victim will pass the gene to their children.


Tau mutations caused by V337M

In Ollie and Jean's clan, Jean had the genetic defect, which she passed to five of her children, who then passed it to some of their offspring. The exact number of victims isn't known, since some family members haven't been tested (by their own choice).

Kolker provides mini-biographies of all nine siblings, most of whom went on to college; got married and had children; and had successful careers. The victims who developed FTD couldn't work (or lost their jobs) after they fell ill, and were unable to take care of themselves. Sibling Sue, who remained healthy, stepped up and took care of some family members, especially Christy.

Kolker describes a typical day for Sue and Christy in their later years. 'Sue helps Christy with everything, coaxing her to the toilet and then the shower. Laundry is a constant. Christy wears adult diapers, but has accidents that call for a change of clothes, about five or six changes a day. Christy's favorite spot in the house is an easy chair in the TV area. The chair has a big leather belt, to keep Christy from roaming when Sue isn't watching. Because of Christy's compulsive overeating, Sue has to padlock the refrigerator, lock the pantry, and make all the meals. Sue is on constant alert, whether she and Christy are inside the house, outside taking a walk, or doing other things.



There's no cure for FTD, and until recently, minimal research about the condition. Kolker describes the formation of 'The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration' (AFTD), whose members - including youngest sibling Barb - lobby politicians, scientists, pharmaceutical companies, etc. to support studies of FTD, with the aim of finding a treatment or cure.




In addition to telling the story of Ollie and Jean's family, Kolker writes about doctors and scientists who added to our knowledge of the brain, and provided information about the causes of psychiatric syndromes and dementia.

Examples include:

➽ Dr. Arnold Pick - In the early 20th century, Pick was the director of the psychiatric hospital at the University of Prague in Czechoslovakia. During autopsies of patients with language and/or behavior problems, Pick observed atrophy of the brain's frontal and temporal lobes. For many years, this was called Pick's disease. It's now known to be a type of FTD (but not the kind in Ollie and Jean's family).



➽ Dr. Alois Alzheimer - Also in the early 20th century, Alzheimer was a German psychiatrist and brain researcher. Alzheimer had the opportunity to study the brain of Auguste D., a woman who lost her memory, forgot her way around her apartment, thought someone was trying to kill her, and descended into total delirium. When Auguste D. died, Alzheimer found 'plaques and tangles' in her brain, and this type of dementia was named Alzheimer's disease.



➽ Sir John Hardy - Hardy is a British neurogeneticist, currently at the National Institutes of Health. Hardy identified a mutation associated with Alzheimer's disease.


Sir John Hardy

Kolker also provides anecdotes about unusual neurological cases. One of the most famous is Phineas Gage. In 1848, at the age of 25, Gage was a dependable construction foreman working on a job site. After an explosion, a long iron rod sliced through Gage's brain, and he became impulsive, profane, unreliable, and unable to plan ahead. The brain injury changed Gage's personality, and showed that specific parts of the brain control behavior.


Phineas Gage

The book is informative, interesting, and draws attention to an illness that might be treatable with a DNA tweak. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Robert Kolker, and Doubleday for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "George Passant: Strangers and Brothers #2" by C.P. Snow

  

I first read C.P. Snow's 'Strangers and Brothers' series some time ago, and it became a favorite. The novels focus on an English barrister/civil servant, Lewis Elliot, who rises from poverty to a position of influence in the early-to-mid 1900s. Elliot is present in the entire eleven-book series, but he's not always the central character.

Storywise, 'George Passant' is the second book in the series.

*****

Lewis Eliot was a junior clerk in his town's 'Council Education Office' when he first met George Passant.



Lewis took night classes at the local College of Art and Technology (aka the School), and George, a solicitor/managing clerk at the law firm Eden & Martineau, taught Fundamentals of Criminal Law.



Lewis was drawn into George's social circle, a cluster of young people (called 'the group') that George - then in his mid-twenties - collected around him. All the group, both men and women, were students at the School. The group often met in cafés.....



...... and then developed the practice of spending weekends at a farmhouse ten miles away, where they would cook their own food, pay a shilling a night for a bed, and talk until daybreak.



*****

When the novel 'George Passant' opens around 1930, Lewis is a London barrister in his mid-twenties, and George - now in his early thirties - is still just a solicitor/managing clerk at Eden & Martineau. George hopes to be made a partner, but Mr. Eden disapproves of George's 'way of life' and won't support a promotion.



George has continued to maintain his social circle (the group), which still spends weekends at a farmhouse in the country. The group is composed of a cadre of young people who admire George for his independence and visionary ideas. George encourages his adherents to think for themselves, reject social conventions, and pursue their dreams.



George does everything he can to support his followers. Thinking of his own time in George's circle, Lewis recalls, "George had set us moving, lent us money....it was the first time we had been so near to a generous-hearted man...We became excited over the books he told us to read and the views he stood by, violent, argumentative, four square. We were carried away by his belief in human beings and ourselves."

George's support for a charismatic young man in his group, Jack Cotery, has serious repercussions. Jack works for a newspaper publisher named Mr. Calvert, who helps pay for Jack's printing classes at the School.



When Mr. Calvert's teenage son Roy develops an innocent crush on Jack, the publisher gets angry and withdraws his financial support for Jack's classes. George intervenes and gets a partial victory, but Jack still can't afford to continue his education.

Jack is an enterprising fellow however, and he embarks on a series of financial schemes, some of which skirt the law. Jack convinces George to be his partner in two of these enterprises.....



.....and before long, the authorities accuse George, Jack, and Jack's girlfriend Olive Calvert of financial fraud - specifically misleading investors to get money.



Lewis Eliot becomes the group's barrister, to defend them in court.



Of course, Lewis's major concern is his friend George, who's VERY NERVOUS about the upcoming trial. When Lewis reads George's diary to prepare for the case, he realizes why.



George's journal contains passages like, "This randy fit is going on too long. Last night I could not resist taking the train to London. I was inflamed by the vision of one of our prettiest [prostitutes].....Tonight it was still on me. I took the familiar train to Nottingham. I found a pair of old friends in the first pub...but they were booked...so I moved on. I have hazy recollections of hordes of women that I kissed."

Worse yet, George's diary refers to Katherine, and Freda, and Daphne, all young women in George's group. In Lewis's time, George would have considered it COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE to sleep with women in his circle; however, George's desires apparently got the best of him. In fact the farmhouse is the site of rampant sexual activity among people in the group, and George is terrified this will come out in court.

We follow along as Lewis Eliot and his former boss Herbert Getliffe defend George and his alleged co-conspirators.



That's the core of the story, with tangential action that adds interest to the narrative. For instance:

🔴 Mr. Martineau (of Eden & Matineau), a capable and respected solicitor, undergoes a religious conversion. He becomes a devout Christian, leaves the law firm, gives away his money, and becomes a member of 'The Brotherhood of the Road.'



🔴 Olive Calvert, a young woman from a wealthy family, seems to have no direction in life. She dallies with the rapscallion Jack Cotery as well as a respectable educated man called Arthur Morcom, who pines for her.



🔴 George has troubles besides the lawsuit. He's frustrated about doing most of the work at Eden & Martineau while being paid a managing clerk's salary; he could help himself by attending Eden's soirées, but he gets awkward among upper class people; his current girlfriend Daphne is maneuvering to marry him; and he must help his parents financially, but spends too much money on himself (wink wink).



As before, there's a good bit of British slang in the book. For instance:

🔴 Mr. Eden tells Lewis an older barrister must assist him for George's trial, saying, "[The jury would] resent all the [youthful] brilliance right from the start. You'd only have to make a clever suggestion, and they'd distrust you. They'd be jibbing from all the good qualities of your generation..." (In this context, 'jibbing ' means resisting, ignoring.)



🔴 George's mother is talking about Mr. Martineau doing a bunk saying, "That's the place old Mr. Martineau started his acting tricks, isn't it? I should like to know what culch he's getting up to now." (In this context, culch means foolishness.)



🔴 George has an entry in his diary that reads: "The last weekend was full of drunken nights, of decrepit nights. I went to Nottingham, finding money drip away as usual. I was still on the hunt and finished at Connie's....Then I realized once again that no other girl of the past year is fit to take her place. I just had time for a huzzlecoo; then I went back on the last train. (In this context, huzzlecoo means a romantic interaction.)



This isn't among the most compelling books in the series, but it's an engaging tale that's important to the continuing story. 

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Midnight Patriots: An Einstein-Chaplin Thriller" by Paul Levine

  

 

This is the second book in the Einstein-Chaplin thriller series, featuring real-life friends Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. The novels contain real historical characters and include actual historical occurrences. However, they're stories with author's discretion.


Charlie Chaplin (left) and Albert Einstein

In the first book, Midnight Burning, pro-fascist William Pelley plans 'Operation Hollywood' to kill the most influential Jews in Tinseltown, starting with Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin (Chaplin isn't Jewish but calls himself a son of Abraham).

In this follow-up novel, the Nazis again have nefarious plans for Chaplin and Einstein. The book can be read as a standalone, but why miss out on the fun; start with book one.

*****

It's November 1940, Germany occupies much of Europe and the Luftwaffe is bombing England to smithereens. Charlie Chaplin's movie, 'The Great Dictator', which portrays German Führer Adolf Hitler as a blustering buffoon with cowardly and effeminate mannerisms, is a smash success in America.



Not so much in Germany. Hitler is infuriated by Chaplin's mockery, and the Schutzstaffel (SS) dispatches an assassin called Schmidt to kill the movie maker.



At the same time, spy master Fritz Duquesne, who works for the the Abwehr (German counterintelligence agency), has an extensive spy network in the United States. Duquesne plans to kidnap Albert Einstein, take him to Germany, and force him to help the Nazis make an atomic bomb.



The SS and Abwehr are rival organizations, both trying to gain favor with the Führer, and the tension between Schmidt and Duquesne has unexpected repercussions.

In the meantime, General George Strong, a U.S army intelligence officer, is pursuing Nazi spies, protecting Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein, and trying to convince Einstein to help the American effort to develop an atomic bomb. Einstein is on the horns of a dilemma. He warned President Roosevelt that Germany is making a bomb, and advised FDR that America better make one first. On the other hand, Einstein is a committed pacifist, and doesn't want to HELP make the bomb.



Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen, newly married to LaVonne Weaver, also takes it upon himself to protect Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin.



While he's at it, Cohen asks Einstein to make his newlywed bride LaVonne smart.



Mickey says, "[LaVonne] ain't had much schooling, unless you count the school of hard knocks. Maybe you can teach her some five-dollar words. Polish her to shine like my alligator wingtips." Cohen goes on, "Wouldn't hurt me none to learn a few fancy words, too, Professor." 

Cohen's right, and his language problems provide some laughs. For instance:

🔴 Einstein tries to deflect Mickey from shooting someone who had a hard childhood, and Mickey says, "I know what you're doing, Professor. Psychotic warfare." [Psychological warfare.]

🔴 Mickey tells a police officer, "Ain't gonna say a word to no more Nazis. I'm going completely incom-avocado." [Incommunicado.]

🔴 A Princeton student who's a Nazi sympathizer brags, "I was a coxswain on our mixed pairs in the '36 Olympics. The German's love of country was invigorating." Cohen watches the smirky blond wiseacre. He doesn't know a coxswain from a cockroach, but if he runs into this punk, he'll slap him silly.



While the U.S. army and Mickey Cohen are working to protect Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover is suspicious of both men. He thinks Chaplin is morally questionable, and he believes Einstein is a communist sympathizer.



Thus Hoover dispatches two FBI agents - Brian Sullivan and Millie Vazquez - to follow Einstein, monitor his activities, and keep him away from the American nuclear program.



After much drama with guns, a cross-bow, surveillance operations, car chases, captured Nazi agents and more, the key characters find themselves on the Santa Fe Super Chief, a luxury train from Chicago to Los Angeles.



The people aboard include:

🔴 Albert Einstein: The physicist is traveling for scientific and public engagements; though Einstein's a pacifist, he knows America will have to go to war sooner or later.

🔴 Fritz Duquesne: The Abwehr spymaster is traveling undercover; he has an elaborate plan to kidnap Einstein along the way.

🔴 Brian Sullivan and Millie Vazquez: The FBI agents are undercover as well, posing as husband and wife; they're keeping an eye on Einstein, to see if he meets up with communists.

🔴 Charlie Chaplin: the movie mogul is returning to Hollywood after promoting The Great Dictator; he gets friendly with fellow passenger Lena Horne (a rising star at this time) along the way.



🔴 Mickey Cohen: the mobster is on his honeymoon trip with LaVonne; Mickey is determined to keep Einstein and Chaplin safe.

🔴 Charles Lindbergh: the aviator, an outspoken Nazi sympathizer, is traveling to give speeches and promote his 'America First' agenda. One of Lindbergh's many mistresses in on board also.



🔴 J. Robert Oppenheimer: the scientist is returning to Berkeley, where he's a professor involved in nuclear research; Oppenheimer's new wife Kitty, who was once a member of America's communist party, is on the train as well.



The train trip makes up a good portion of the book, and provides much of the novel's forward motion as people's motives and plans are exposed.

For me, this book doesn't have the pizzazz of Midnight Burning The story is more 'talk' than excitement: Einstein and Chaplin try to convince Lindbergh of the error of his isolationist/pro-Nazi stance; J. Edgar fumes about communists; military folk talk about making a bomb. Perhaps because the book is set in 1940, things are more in the planning than the doing stage.

Still, it's entertaining to see Charlie Chaplin climb out a 43rd floor window in his boxer shorts, to avoid being shot for canoodling with Marion Davies - the mistress of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst; and the spy vs. spy drama is rather exciting too.


Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst

All in all, I'd recommend the book to fans of historical mysteries.

I had the digital book and the audiobook, narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Paul Levine, Herald Square and Brilliance Audio for ARCs of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars