When I was in my 30's I read Gail Sheehy's Passages, a book that helped me get a handle on the problems that would face me as I passed through the decades of my 30's, 40's, and 50's. Now that I'm 62 and recently retired, a book arrives just in time to give me fresh insight into the challenges of growing older in contemporary American society. Lillian Rubin, a prominent sociologist and psychotherapist, has just given us 60 On Up, a very readable and realistic look at the issues that await us as we grow older in a world where anti-aging gurus abound with promises of prolonged youth.
In the first paragraph of the book Ms. Rubin writes: "Getting old sucks!~ it always has, it always will. Yes, I know about all those books and articles extolling the wonder of what the media call the "new old age." I've been reading them for quite a while now and can only conclude that they're either written by forty-year-olds who, like children afraid of the dark, draw rosy pictures as they try to convince themselves that no unknown monsters await them. Or they're lying. Is that too harsh a word? Perhaps. Maybe it's not a lie but a wish, a hope, a need to believe there's something more to this business of getting old than we see around us."
Ms. Rubin shares with us, not only her academic research but her personal experience as well. This book is a must read for those who are approaching their 60th decade and need a compass to navigate the years of retirement, the empty nest, illness, and loss.
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