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Old Friends
Écrit par Tracy Kidder
Raconté par Lowell George Seibel
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Tracy Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine. House and Among Schoolchildren were national bestsellers. Now this "crackerjack reporter with a common touch" (Philip Lopate, The Washington Post) has turned his talents to his most important and universal theme in this, a close-in study of old age in America. With care and exactitude, with the human compassion and humor for which he is famed, Kidder opens up a fascinating world to us that is, at the same time, foreign and compelling.
The narrative takes place entirely in a nursing home and focuses on two old men struggling with their circumstances, their memories, and their mortality.
The narrative takes place entirely in a nursing home and focuses on two old men struggling with their circumstances, their memories, and their mortality.
Actions du livre
Commencer à écouterInformations sur le livre
Old Friends
Écrit par Tracy Kidder
Raconté par Lowell George Seibel
Description
Tracy Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine. House and Among Schoolchildren were national bestsellers. Now this "crackerjack reporter with a common touch" (Philip Lopate, The Washington Post) has turned his talents to his most important and universal theme in this, a close-in study of old age in America. With care and exactitude, with the human compassion and humor for which he is famed, Kidder opens up a fascinating world to us that is, at the same time, foreign and compelling.
The narrative takes place entirely in a nursing home and focuses on two old men struggling with their circumstances, their memories, and their mortality.
The narrative takes place entirely in a nursing home and focuses on two old men struggling with their circumstances, their memories, and their mortality.
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I never tire of Tracy Kidder’s writing. I’ve read most of his books, including the Pulitzer Prize winner Soul of a New Machine. This book, Old Friends, is written in Kidder’s typical fly on the wall style. It’s about the residents at Linda Manor nursing home. We spend time with a variety of patients, from the quaint to the bizarre. Some of the relationships are touching, especially the one between Joe and Lou, two unlikely friends from two different generations. Many of the stories are heart wrenching and almost too difficult to finish. Being in my late 60s, I probably shouldn’t be reading books about life inside nursing homes, but I can’t resist Tracy Kidder. This book, like all his others, is a gem.
This book was very difficult for me to get through, not because it was poorly written but quite the contrary. Kidder's lucent prose brings the sadness and loneliness of the nursing home to vivid life. It's possible that reading this soon after my own grandmother died, much diminished, was unwise. It's haunting and frightening and well-done but I can't say I liked it. I suffered through it in an agony of projection and reflection and grief. Even so, I recommend it- if for nothing else than to bring you into the present, wonderful moment. Take big bites now, before it's too late.
I had to read this book for a Human Development class in college and it stuck with me. So much, in fact, that I still remembered it years later and sought it out and re-read it (which I very rarely do).
On one hand, bittersweet story of two men who become roomates and, eventually, friends, at a retirement home. On the other hand, an indictment of the way we treat the elderly in the U.S. Highly recommended, along with his other books.
Beautiful. Pure, clean writing that made me less afraid of nursing homes, disabled old people, and my own aging. I still don't want to stick around after I'm no longer able to read or use the bathroom by myself, because I know that most folks aren't as well cared for as those at Linda Manor, but that's irrelevant. What is relevant is that Kidder is an amazing writer, and I was sad when this book was over and I had to say goodbye to all the folks I got to know and care about.