Author:
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Ellen Gamerman
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Source:
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Baltimore Sun
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Date:
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2/15/2004
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Format:
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Serial
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This is an insightful, sensitive exploration of life at the edge of infirmity.
Gamerman shows a keen eye for thematic detail in this series about characters at a retirement home. The sad, revealing scenes consistently serve Gamerman's authorial vision. The series is a great example of what first-hand narrative reporting can do for a topic, in this case lending insight into the struggles of a particular sort of old age. Gamerman writes in her Q & A with readers that the series and its setting "offered a window into the part of old age that is less familiar -- not the often-tragic end of life, but that middle stage that now stretches on for years and years, where people glimpse the end but don't necessarily live right up next to it."
We found ourselves tripped up occasionally by the piece's dips into news-speak: the references to "senior citizens" or official recountings of a character's occupation. On the flip side, the title seemed shmaltzy -- but as we read, it began to make sense. We did find a few moments in the piece of sentimentality, a sort of forced poeticism. But we welcomed the reporting for the characters' inner lives, especially that of Ben, the husband of a woman with Alzheimer's.
There were moments we particularly enjoyed: In the last section, for instance, Gamerman mentions the adage that the elderly, not knowing how long they'll live, don't buy green bananas. Several paragraphs later, her protagonist is buying them, a symbol of his optimism, "each completely, perfectly, brilliantly green."
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© 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College