Ways of Aging (review)

The stated intent of this volume is to illustrate the diverse and multifaceted experiences of aging in order to begin countering the categorization and stereotyping of "old" and old age. This is necessary, the editors argue, in order to offset the homogenizing effects of categorization, to help us understand objects and experiences differently. Using more contextually sensitive terms of reference that expose historical circumstances, cultural backgrounds and biographical experiences remind us not to take stereotypes to the extreme. This is accomplished by organizing the book into three sections, each containing three qualitative chapters. The first presents focusing on the persistence of lifelong meanings and claims to personhood into old age. The second part presents articles on adaptation, the resourcefulness involved in adjusting the personal and social sides of life. The chapters in the third section deal with aging and change, highlighting the diverse ways in which change alters our understanding of who we thought we were. An epilogue focuses on positive aging, with stories of individuals continuing to construct their lives in affirmative ways.

The book succeeds in demonstrating that there is diversity in aging, that persons continue to be active agents during old age, that continuity, adaptation and change all characterize old age, and that history, culture and biography are all important ingredients constituting and influencing our lives. For example, Black's paper reveals how forgiveness in old age is not a simple developmental imperative but rather depends on an elder's pattern of attitudes and behaviours throughout life, involving the same moral tone the person uses to judge her/himself as good, bad, right or wrong. Weibel-Orlando's chapter demonstrates Lakota tribe grandmothers' status and work as family cultural conservators, reflecting the need to instill and perpetuate their tribal legacy and identity in younger generations. Paterniti shows how nursing home residents limit institutional totality through their insistence, complaints and storytelling, having some agency despite a focus on bed-and-body work within this setting.

Moving on to adaptation, Koropeckyj-Cox reveals how three childless men nevertheless relate a sense of responsibility and active involvement in procreation through relationships with others (such as nieces and nephews), but childlessness is not the strong theme as it is for childless women. Identities are built

around independence, professional competence and economic security. Faircloth learned how in one community, elderly residents created ways of aging from everyday troubles in an otherwise isolating social environment. The troubles (defining certain residents in various ways such as "nosy") had little to do with the infirmities of old age. Johnson and Barer's study of family life among aging Black Americans reveals large, close-knit extended families inclusive of fictive kin, and as multifunctional, exchanging goods, services, and emotional support. These inclusive social units contribute to positive aging even though some family members may be seriously malfunctioning.

Matthews's chapter on change reveals how nuns, having entered their religious community in a time of authoritarian separateness and having lived through the change to a more open and democratic order "in" the surrounding community, arrive at later life in a world very different from the monolithic institutional self they had been taught to expect. They have difficulty finding a place for themselves in the new order. Rosenfeld explores the lives of gay men and lesbians who are elderly today, who had distinctly stigmatized identities prior to the late 1960s and lived through gay liberation which focussed on a less shameful stigma of homosexuality. This chapter discusses how the identity careers of these individuals have been affected by this history, and how sexual identity issues still inform their narratives. Van den Hoonaard notes that widows' expectations to a large extent determine their reactions to their situations. If for example their children do more for them than they expected, their satisfaction is high; if they do less, it is low. Individuals found the lack of clear norms around their role as "widow" challenging.

This is an easy read and the chapters provide many stories, encapsulating a richness that this review...