Bookworm
Diane Ackerman: One Hundred Names for Love
When Diane Ackerman's husband, Paul West, suffered a stroke, the couple had to learn a new way to communicate. That led him to write a new form of novel — an aphasic novel.
By Michael Silverblatt • • 29m Listen: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing
(Norton)
Diane Ackerman and her husband, novelist-scholar
Paul West, lived a life of language — written and spoken language, articulation supreme. When Paul suffered a stroke, the couple had to learn to communicate in a new way. Diane Ackerman speaks lovingly about the very gradual evolution of a special aphasic language which would express their affection and which led Paul to write a new form of novel — an aphasic novel.