What is it about Jennifer that makes her so compelling, appealing even. As a character, is Jennifer someone you want to spend time with - at a safe distance?

Her honesty. There are so many glossy, do good characters in books that are not relatable. Then there are characters that are so extreme, so awful, they are like science fiction. That's not the case in Turn of Mind - Jennifer's flaws and self awareness (even when she has very little awareness at all) make her human in a way that makes our own flaws seem more tolerable.

Even at her worst moments, Jennifer is strength. When she is lucid she knows exactly what her capabilities are, who she was, what she was able to do. When she is in the throes of this awful disease she still tries to maintain her dignity when she can. Her complete truthfulness to herself and others has made her the person she is. It has caused her to see the world with all its flaws; alienated her from friends and family at times and caused the most anguish in her illness.

Her intelligence and strength made me admire her. In spite of the way she was treated by family and friends, she tries to maintain her dignity throughout.

Maintaining dignity through a confused mind is extremely difficult if not impossible. Jennifer attempted (and sometimes succeeded) to maintain dignity with whatever intelligence and strength she could muster when her mind was its most confused - a Herculean task.

Honestly, I didn't find her particularly appealing in terms of her personality. She didn't strike me as a particularly sympathetic character. It was her situation and the effort she made to keep herself together in the face of her own mental deterioration that humanized her and it possible to relate to her in the story.

I liked her strength and her attitude, and later her vulnerability that was evident before and after the dementia became more obvious. One scene that particularly stands out to me was after her escape, when she was at the Italian restaurant interacting with the young couple. It as almost heartbreaking when it finally fell apart.

She really shows up for her own life in spite of being, at times, mentally incapable. This contradiction is intriguing and thought provoking for me.