The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt

Tony Judt was a historian whose speciality was the twentieth century after World War II. He was renowned particularly for the book Postwar. He died in August 2010. Some years before he died, he was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), a nervous system disorder characterized by the progressive loss of muscular control. Over time, ALS sufferes lose the ability to walk, use their hands, speak, and, ultimately, breathe. There is no accompanying deterioration of consciousness. Patients become trapped in their own bodies.


That this happened to Tony Judt is essential to understanding his book The Memory Chalet, but the book is not primarily about his experience with the disease. Judt had to develop coping mechanisms to take him out of the confines of his incapacitation when he was lying alone in his bed at night, mostly as a means of enabling him to sleep. His method was to go on travels through his memories. The following day he would dictate his thoughts generated by these experiences. This is a wonderful book.

John Bickelhaupt, Reference Librarian