| Dick Estell The Radio Reader Public Radio's Reading Program |
| Copyright © 2006 The Radio Reader. All rights reserved. For website corrections/comments e-mail: webmaster@radioreader.net |
| Airs May 13 - June 4, 2009 |
Ella and John Robina, eighty-somethings, take off in their Leisure Seeker RV
against the will of their son, daughter, and doctors…destination Disneyland, via
the memorable Route 66. Ella has refused further treatment for cancer, and
John's Alzheimer’s is four years advanced, but they leave the Detroit suburbs and
head west.
Ella navigates and narrates their trip, and their lives, while John, who veers from
sentience to senility and rage to tenderness, drives the RV.
Aged, crumbling Route 66 triggers Ella’s thoughts, and her narration is matter-of-
fact but laced with snarky one-liners. John is a distressingly realistic portrait of a
person with Alzheimer’s: Ella never knows when he’ll have a moment of lucidity or
fly into a dangerous rage. Their middle-aged children’s panicked demands that
the couple return home will resonate with any adult who has feared for a parent’s
well-being.
against the will of their son, daughter, and doctors…destination Disneyland, via
the memorable Route 66. Ella has refused further treatment for cancer, and
John's Alzheimer’s is four years advanced, but they leave the Detroit suburbs and
head west.
Ella navigates and narrates their trip, and their lives, while John, who veers from
sentience to senility and rage to tenderness, drives the RV.
Aged, crumbling Route 66 triggers Ella’s thoughts, and her narration is matter-of-
fact but laced with snarky one-liners. John is a distressingly realistic portrait of a
person with Alzheimer’s: Ella never knows when he’ll have a moment of lucidity or
fly into a dangerous rage. Their middle-aged children’s panicked demands that
the couple return home will resonate with any adult who has feared for a parent’s
well-being.
| (fiction) |
| The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian William Morrow, NY 2009 |
