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Nasty, Brutish, and Long |
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| eBook: Adobe reader | 8.26 x 5.23in | 224 pages | ISBN 9781101025895 | 19 Mar 2009 | Avery |
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A coming of old-age story.
In nursing homes across the country, members of the Greatest Generation are living out their last days. No matter how exciting or mundane their lives, they’re now occupying a hospital-style room—a public space where you can’t lock your door and strangers come and go. Life is a succession of pokes and prods, medications, TV, bingo, and, possibly, talking to Ira Rosofsky.
Nasty, Brutish, and Long is a candid, humane, and improbably humorous look at the world of eldercare. With a compassionate eye but mordant wit, Rosofsky, a psychologist charged with gauging the mental health of his elders, reveals a culture based not in the empathy of caretaking, but rather in the coolly detached bureaucracy of Medicare and Medicaid.
A portrayal of what is increasingly becoming the last slice of life for many, Nasty, Brutish, and Long is also a baby boomer’s poignant meditation on mortality, a reflection on his caregiving for his parents’ final days, and an examination of the choices that we, as a society, have made about healthcare for the elderly who are no longer of sound mind and body.
Read Ira Rosofsky's posts on the Penguin Blog
“Rosofsky [psychologist] takes on life in nursing homes, where he offers his services. It's a daunting subject, yet he avoids making his book dry or overwhelmingly depressing. He does this through his tone, which nicely blends irony with empathy, and his judicious citing of statistics and studies, which give the book heft but do not swamp the reader. Most effectively, he interlaces his personal history, including a contentious relationship with his dementia-plagued father, with amusing or touching vignettes of other nursing home residents…This book is not an exposé, just a realistic and sometimes exasperated assessment of elder care. It also is a cautionary tale for baby boomers, who, Rosofsky believes, will change it as they have other aspects of society. Before that time comes, for them or their parents, they would do well to read this book.”
—The Hartford Courant, March 29, 2009
“Such rich humanity in these meditations! Rosofsky tenders both the light touch and life’s sure gravities of age and decrepitude—the memorable and meaningless, the wince and grin, belly laughs and heartbreaks, the pharmaceutical blur and the clarity of ‘ancient glittering eyes.’ A book for policymakers, caregivers, the halt and lame, upright and unencumbered: anyone who ever intends to grow old.”
—Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
“With an eye for detail and a dark sense of humor, Ira Rosofsky takes us into a world most of us never wanted to see, and where we often avert our eyes when forced to look. In this fascinating book, Rosofsky asks us to consider how we spend the extra years of life that our modern world has given us. The answer isn’t pretty. Intertwining the stories of his parents’ decline and death with the stories of those he cares for who live in nursing homes, Rosofsky takes us down the modern version of the road to dusky death. The destination is the same, but this road is newly paved.”
—Lisa Sanders, M.D., author of Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries
“As a society we are far better at innovating than sustaining. In this sharply observed, personal account of life among the elderly, Ira Rosofsky illuminates the paradox of growing old in America, which too often means a greater accumulation of years with sadly diminishing returns.”
—Julie Salamon, author of Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids
“When it comes to Hell, Dante Alighieri is the definitive tour guide. But for today's (and quite possibly tomorrow's) living hell, you'll want to take Ira Rosofsky's delightfully wry narrative along for the ride. He accomplishes what few authors are capable of— taking an unnerving topic and turning it into a book so enthralling you won't want to put down. Indeed, it's a meditation worthy of Marcus Aurelius and Jerry Seinfeld.”
—Andrew D. Blechman, author of Leisureville: Adventures in a World without Children
“Ira Rosofsky paints his tale with compassion and sensitivity, and it’s a story that needs telling. From his perspective as an eldercare psychologist and the son of an aging father, he urges us to question the direction we have taken in our efforts to prolong life. If you are like me, his story will make you hope to escape such a fate.”
—John Elder Robison, bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye
“In Nasty, Brutish, and Long, Ira Rosofsky provides a rare glimpse into the hearts and minds of the aging. As a psychologist who has worked in nursing homes and an immensely talented and sensitive writer, he manages to find the perfect telling details to bring this often neglected world alive for the reader.” —Gail Konop Baker, author of Cancer is a Bitch (Or, I’d Rather be Having a Midlife Crisis)
“In an intriguing combination of personal story, social commentary, and scientific observation, a psychologist lifts the veil on nursing homes. Ira Rosofsky’s presentation— laced with sharp humor—treats us to the nursing home experience from the variety of these viewpoints. All who have had experiences with nursing homes—whether as residents, relatives of residents, or as professionals—should read Nasty, Brutish, and Long, as should any who are interested in a penetrating view of how we as a society care for and care about those too frail or elderly to care for themselves.”
—Laurie Stillman, Director of Public Health Policy and Advocacy, The Medical Foundation
“Nasty, Brutish, and Long is as much about the last years of life and the meaning of existence during old age as it is about nursing homes. Ira Rosofsky’s personal narrative--along with the tales of the elderly he treats--contributes to a picture of the author as a fully engaged human being who tells his story with style and humor. And the story is an insightful and sensitive perspective on issues as varied as psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, the institutionalization of the aged, and our inevitable mortality.”
—David Hall, former Principal, Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, University of Chicago
“A psychologist who has worked for years in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, Rosofsky presents a disturbing, often moving account of the lives of some of the two million men and women who reside in America’s 18,000 nursing homes. Like the police officer or bartender whose perspective on society is shaped by his work, Rosofsky, who professionally sees only problematic residents of institutions, has a slightly skewed (and very grim) sample. However, the dispiriting tenor of the title and the emphasis on confused and depressed men and women are leavened with the author’s bursts of wit, his welcome guidance on how to evaluate nursing homes and assisted-living centers and his frank ruminations on his own aging and health issues and the deaths of his parents and mother-in-law. What could have been a morose account of loss, suffering and death is lightened by the humorous and helpful treatment of an emotionally laden topic.”
—Publishers Weekly
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