The Oxford Book of Aging
Cole and Winkler's division of this work into nine chapters, each organized around an aspect of aging, brings some order and focus to what might have been either chaos or quotation-book deadliness. They have chosen from literatures throughout the world and from the beginning of literary times to the present "in a spirit of creative dialogue to encourage personal and cultural conversations about what it means to grow old." The selections range in length from a few lines of poetry to 16 or so pages of prose and come from authors as diverse as Emily Dickinson and Alois Alzheimer. Religious and nonreligious concepts appear. Pollyanna would find some pieces to keep her happy, but she would, in the process, stumble over some that are cynical, excoriating, or absolutely hopeless. This is one of those rare books that you can't read straight through. You will have to stop every few pages or paragraphs to visualize verbal pictures, to think about other viewpoints or meanings, or just to mull over or block out your own memories.William Beatty