Here’s a quick review
with comments on two books which deal with aging:
Louise Aronson wrote ELDERHOOD in order to
share her views about “Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining
Life.” Aronson is a geriatrician and professor of medicine at the University of
California, San Francisco. She freely
admits that “this book doesn’t always walk a straight line from here to there” and
I did find it to be rather rambling. Plus,
since I had a digital preview (with no index and limited formatting), I found added
difficulty in following her flow. However, her tone is conversational and comforting
as she describes embracing a universal trajectory with a “third act:”
childhood, adulthood and then elderhood, “the longest, most varied period of
our lives.” Aronson’s writing is absolutely filled with stories and
observations from her own life, and that of her patients and others. Just a
smattering of examples would be her “summer of sickness” as a nine-year-old
with a ruptured appendix at a sleep-away camp or comments on Bruce Springsteen’s
view of turning old despite his almost daily three hours of highly physical
entertaining in his mid-sixties. Near
the end of the text Aronson presents a care paradigm with an outline of ten assumptions
(e.g., medicine and healthcare, while often used interchangeably, are not
equivalent). It seems that she is inviting reflection and more research. Throughout,
she offers a new perspective and acknowledges “powerful thinkers [who] have
created an enormous body of work on old age that should have far more influence
on our aging lives and policies.” Aronson’s text is both fact- and story-based,
with about ten percent devoted to notes. ELDERHOOD received starred reviews
from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, with the later labeling it “one of the best
accounts around of the medical mistreatment of the old.”
CHOOSING JOY by Helene
Berger is subtitled “Alzheimer's: A Book of Hope” and was inspired by the
unanticipated positive results Berger’s husband achieved after his diagnosis of
Alzheimer's. Berger says her “goal is to give hope and offer concrete
suggestions.” The book is divided into sections titled Foundations (background
and acknowledgment of shifting roles), Practical Approaches (Acceptance, an
Active Mind, Creating a Healthy and Safe Environment) Interaction with Others (Aides,
Doctors, Self-Care), and Looking Back (reflecting on the Power of Love). Berger
notes that this text in no way implies similar success for other caregivers.
However, reviews by caregivers are universally positive and appreciative of the
helpful, hopeful insights which Berger relays. They comment on Berger’s belief,
developed during her six years as a caregiver, to “fight the disease; embrace
the journey” as a new perspective for being a caregiver. Her message is to
regard this diagnosis as “another life opportunity to learn and to grow – to learn
that we always have options, even if it’s only the attitude we bring to
conditions that we would do anything to change.” She is frank and open in her
writing, sharing hard-earned wisdom and saying, “CHOOSING JOY chronicles
my real life experiences: the tears, the frustration, the uncertainty, the many
mistakes, as well as the successes.”
NOTE: SHIELD is the new acronym: S - Sleep; H - Handle Stress; I - Interact with Others; E - Exercise; L - Learn New Things; D - Diet
