AIRED: June 6, 2016– 11 am PST
TITLE: “The Alzhammer: Or Keep Your Friends Close and … I Forget the Other Thing”
SPECIAL GUEST: Joe Di Prisco
WEB SITE: www.diprisco.com/the-alzhammer
Joe Di Prisco is the acclaimed author of Subway to California, All for Now, and Sun City. His newest, ALZHAMMER is a comic and tragic look into the world of dementia. It’s the story of a once-powerful mob boss, Mikey, who watched his father disappear from the disease and who’s now, himself seriously slipping.
Joe’s own father, who was also connected to the mob–though Joe never knew until he was an adult–also suffered from dementia and Joe was his caregiver at the end of his life. In this novel, the storyline mirrors his father’s dementia story and well as Joe’s own experience dealing with it.
For families and especially sons and fathers there exists a very unique dynamic. Joe never knew who is father was growing up because there were so many secrets. Later when he took care of his father, the dementia kept him from knowing more!
So many of us care for, or will soon be caring for, family members plagued by this treacherous illness. What can we do? How can we live and understand this awful condition? How can we cope and have a sense of humor about it, to protect ourselves from the pain? Join us in an interview that does exactly that through a fictional story that is real as it gets!
ABOUT JOE DI PRISCO
Joseph Di Prisco’s work has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and literary journals, and his poetry has received several prizes. Among his many books, including Subway to California and Sun City, Joe has also co-author of two highly regarded books about child and family development.
Once he overheard his son being asked by his cousin if he was worried that his dad was publishing a memoir. His son said: “Worried? I don’t know, but there seem to be two kinds of memoirs. One is about landing a plane in the Hudson. The other is about hookers and blow in Vegas. As far as I know, my dad never landed a plane in the Hudson.”
He attended an all-boys Catholic high school, Syracuse University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his graduate studies. For 20 years, Joe taught middle school, high school, and college. He has sat on and consulted with several non-profit boards in the areas of education, mental health, children’s welfare, and the arts, and he is Chair Emeritus of Redwood Day School in Oakland, California.
