Wendy Lustbader is one of America’s finest and most illuminating writers. Equally passionate as a writer, teacher, and therapist, Wendy brings
a social worker’s lived experience to her writing, teaching, and service to older people. Indeed it is her long experience with and concern for the well being of older people that forms the foundation of this remarkable book.
For more than two decades she has poked and prodded, searched for and then found surprising new answers to the question, “what is the meaning of age and aging?” I was one of the lucky few who received an advance copy of the book and I loved it.
Loved it.
I find this book to be deeper than her last work. (“What’s Worth Knowing”) It fairly bristles with an astonishing array of fully developed insights into life and the lives we lead. Wendy brings us into the presence of older people who introduce us to the the mental and emotional richness they have drawn from aging. This is the heart and soul of developmental aging. Aging people are indeed happier, more courageous, and more interested in being true to their inner selves than when they were young.
How good is this book? It is our Book of Year for 2011.
Jude and I read a few pages aloud to each other at night before we go to sleep. The ideas Wendy offers us reliably lead to a thoughtful conversation about our lives and the decisions we are making about our marriage, our family, our work and our future. If you care about Changing Aging then you owe it to yourself to buy a copy of this book. One thing I have little patience for are whimsical reflections on the quirky wisdom of older people. Life Gets Better goes far beyond such ephemera; it deals directly with your life, your struggles, your journey.
Buy it and read it and I guarantee you that you will be taken to a new and deeper level of understanding.
I am going to hold tight to my prepublication copy but many people will likely give their copy to a friend as soon as they finish reading it.
