Thoughtful, uncowed observations of the aging process with upbeat conclusions.
Septuagenarian poet Roth decries our “obsessive focus on the deterioration of the elderly” and charts a course of independent, dignified and fruitful aging.
Roth doesn’t deny that there are physical and mental losses as we grow older, particularly regarding brain cells that relate to short-term memory. What she finds galling is the cultural negativity toward old age, “the dire warnings of a society that contemplates every aspect about itself and is seriously afraid of growing older.” With advances in modern medicine, there is every reason to expect an alert, active, achieving and participatory old age. What Roth focuses on are the mental hiccups that attend the advancing years–the moments of forgetfulness. She advises a use-it or lose-it approach, writing, “Those who continue to use their brain retain its use; those who do not, lose it.” The author explains that if you worry about forgetting that pot of boiling water, then don’t leave it. If you can’t recall a certain word, chose another, simpler one (which will probably be better than the $10 one you forgot). Roth is especially forceful in counseling that one cultivate his or her head. There is a great storehouse of knowledge, skill and interests in the brain–one that’s been fed since the day each of us were born. The author writes that one should first explore the terrain–“find the time, the place, and the quiet to begin to become conscious of the stored data you already possess”–then build on it and keep learning and ruminating on the big issues, like war and peace and human decency. Some may call it absentmindedness, this mooning about in your own head, but instead it’s a process of letting the mundane slip away. There was a time when we used to learn from our elders’ experience, but now the memory bullies want to send the old to the abattoir. Roth shows how, instead, to be subtly and directly defiant of being pigeonholed as decrepit.
Thoughtful, uncowed observations of the aging process with upbeat conclusions.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4490-2101-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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