Book Reading By Dudley Clendinen Announed By NAS: 'A Place Called Canterbury: Tales Of The New Old Age In America'

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare;  Conferences
Article Date: 30 Sep 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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"A funny, insightful view of the new old age … This often hilarious, sometimes very sad, observation on old age is always deeply respectful of the men and women experiencing it and their dedicated caretakers. This is a wise and telling book."
--Cokie Roberts, NPR and ABC news analyst and author of 'We Are Our Mother's Daughters'

Dudley Clendinen will read passages from his new book, A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. at the National Academies' Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., N.W. The event is free; a photo ID is required for admittance.

In 1994, New York Times writer Dudley Clendinen's mother followed the example of her generational compatriots: She sold her home and moved into an all-amenities-included geriatric apartment building, the Canterbury Tower in Tampa Bay. Wealthy, poor, Christian, Jewish, widowed, married -- all of Canterbury's residents had come together, at the average age of 86, in search of a last place to live and die.

Clendinen's curiosity about this final phase of human life in the 21st century led him to spend 400 days and nights at Canterbury, during which he became intimately involved in the lives of its residents and staff. A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America (Viking) offers a beautifully written, hilarious, and deeply moving look at old age in the new millennium.

The last challenge to the generation of the Great Depression and World War II is longevity -- none expected to live so long, and their baby boomer children weren't prepared to take so much responsibility for parents who seem to live forever, collecting ailments and shedding assets as they go. But places like Canterbury Tower are more like adult camps than retirement homes, allowing residents to live out their remaining time on their own terms.

Peopled by brave, daffy, memorable characters determined to grow old with dignity, A Place Called Canterbury is at once a delightful soap opera and a poignant chronicle of the last years of the Greatest Generation. It is an essential read for anyone with aging parents and anyone wondering what his or her own old age will look like.

Dudley Clendinen is a former national reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times. He edited a book of essays, The Prevailing South, and wrote the text for a book of photographs, Homeless in America. He is co-author of Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. He lives in Baltimore.

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Source: Alana Quinn
National Academy of Sciences

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