Patti Davis

After writing The Long Goodbye, in which I explored the experience of losing my father to Alzheimer's, I have written several novels — Till Human Voices Wake Us, The Earth Breaks in Colors, and The Wrong Side of Night. But the lessons I learned from the ten years of my father's illness stayed with me and wanted more of a voice. That is how Floating the Deep End was born. It is both handbook and memoir — a journey along the rugged trail of Alzheimer's. While working on a new novel, there was still a final installment in the story of my family that I wanted to write. I have told that story in Dear Mom and Dad, A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew. Much of it is about our lives before the world moved in — a time of more tenderness than what we had in later years. It's taken me a long time to be able to stand back and look at my family through a wider lens. This book is about that passage. It is about acceptance, forgiveness, and moving on from the past.