One hundred names for love : a stroke, a marriage, and the language of healing

Ackerman Chronicles Her Novelist Husband Paul West's Heroic Battle To Reclaim Words And Mobility And Her Tailoring Of West's Speech Therapy To Match His Spectacular Vocabulary And Unique Intelligence. Diane Ackerman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [315]-318). Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Finalist for the National Book Circle Critics Award "A testament to the power of creativity in language, life—and love." —Heller McAlpin, Washington Post No other writer can blend the science of the brain with the love of language like Diane Ackerman. In this extraordinary memoir, she opens a window into the experience of wordlessness—the language paralysis called aphasia. In narrating the recovery of her husband, Paul West, from a stroke that reduced his vast vocabulary to a single syllable, she evokes the joy and mystery of the brain's ability to find and connect words. Deeply rewarding to readers of all kinds, Ackerman has given us a literary love story, accessible insight into the science and medicine of brain injury, and invaluable spiritual sustenance in the face of life's myriad physical sufferings. Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award "A testament to the power of creativity in language, life—and love." —Heller McAlpin, Washington Post It is a truism that lovers have their own language. And the love story—extending over more than forty years—of acclaimed writers Diane Ackerman and Paul West is equally a story of the love of language and its mysteries. In this heart-warming, uplifting memoir, Ackerman explores the brain’s ability to find and connect words—and of the latest science behind what happens when it fails to do so. Exposing both the terror of losing language and the giddy exhilaration of its recovery, Ackerman opens a window into the experience of wordlessness and testifies to the joyous necessity of wordplay for the health of both mind and spirit.