I’m an avid reader but find myself struggling to find the time to read books outside of Plenary Publishing’s acquistions and submissions. But, when I travel, I take the time to squeeze in a book or two. When I went on a cruise in November (loved it! needed it!), I took Leonard Pitt’s Before I Forget.

This is the first novel for Pitts, a Pulitzer prize winning columnist, and I love it. I haven’t finished it and I’m still raving about it. But I find myself sneaking in chapters as I work, because Pitts’ story is so moving, so authentic and raw, sometimes depressing in its realness, that I can’t stay away for too long without wondering what happened to Mo, Trey, Tash and Jack.

Here’s the synopsis from Pitt’s website:

It’s the story of Mo Johnson; once upon a time, he was one of the most popular R&B stars of the 1970s. Now, he’s just someone who used to be. Mo has a hated father he hasn’t spoken to for 30 years who has terminal cancer, he has a son to whom he gave everything but attention, who has just been arrested for armed robbery and murder. Worse, he has early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Just 49 years old, and he’s just learned that he’s dying of a disease that will erase his memory, his very identity, that will take his life before it kills him. Before I Forget is about a man racing the clock, desperate to make peace with the ghosts of past and present, to make peace with his father and reconcile with his son before it’s too late.

I was interested in this book because I also tackle the issue of Alzheimer’s in my novel (Brand New Leaves, coming April 2010, holla!)  and its impact on a family. Pitts tackles this issue against the backdrop of the father/son dynamic:  from the mind of a father who’s slowly losing himself to the disease while coming to terms with the son he made no time for, and from the pain of a son struggling to find his own way and form a relationship with a father he barely knows.

I’m passing this on to my own brother when I go home for the holidays, and I highly recommend it. Read this book.