The Life Impossible - Matt Haig

 Another "recommended" book that I did not like.  I'd very much enjoyed his earlier book The Midnight Library.  The premise of this one is that a recently widowed woman who lost her only child when he was 9 years old is given a house in Ibiza, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean sea.  She heads out and discovers a magical alien life force that came here to save the Earth, a glowing light in the sea grass under the ocean.  It just gets weirder from there.  I kept reading hoping it would get better and was sorely disappointed.  After reading the author's acknowledgments it appears to have been written to be able to write off living on the island for a while.  At least I learned something about a place I'd never heard of and will add to my places to visit list, but this book is not recommended by me!

Quote/Comments:

[she's asked] "Are you here on your own? Yes, I said, and the sadness leaked out.  It was there on my face and in my eyes.  Grief was a flood that ran through you and caused others to stand aside.  Or at least wind up the conversation."

Published: 2024  Read: December 2024  Genre: fantasy fiction 

The Super Age - Bradley Schuman

Sub-title: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny 

I've long been an advocate for understanding the impact of our aging society.  This book documents the coming "age storm" and the potential impacts on all aspects of society.  It was repetitive in making its point which bogged down the reading.  I took awhile to finish it.  I've long been fascinated with the impact of aging and this read added a new perspective.

Quotes:

"p 24 - In 1875, American Express Company started offering private corporate pensions, the first of their kind.  The stated goal was to reward ...workers...as a charitable way to ease them out of the workforce.  Again, that tied in to the ability of a worker to do a job and was not necessarily tied to chronological age."

p.29 - "...most national social welfare systems are predicated on having a relatively large, you working population that pays taxes to support a relatively small, older retired population.  National economies, which are built on the false premise o perennial growth, could begin to contract."

p. 33 "The Greeks saw aging as a downward slope of decrepitude.  They even worshipped Geras, the god of old age, who was represented as a shriveled-up man holding a cane."

p. 88 ..women who serve their families as homemakers and caregivers, rather than in income-generating work, are doubly penalized..they do not attain financial freedom during their lifetimes...financial security in old age is tied to marital status and financial success of their husband.  The system was designed this way.  Husbands, as it turns out, are a terrible retirement policy."

p. 169 [describing Mitsubishi older worker program] "...is important because it illustrates the necessity of retaining and transferring institutional knowledge."

p. 171 [on generationally diverse staff] "Considering the whole life...a generationally diverse Super Age staff will have different needs."

p 196 "...everyone wants to be part of something.  All people want to belong and be seen as part of something."

p. 205 "Establishing a cooperative is one strategy an older entrepreneur can employ to ext from a business and make a profit while keeping important services in the community."

Published: 2022   Read: September 2022  Genre: Non-fiction

The Japanese Lover - Isabel Allende

I really like this author.  I loved her biography of her daughter, Paula, and her early books had a mystical quality about them.  The last one I read, Maya's Notebook was a disappointment but I was willing to try again.  I shouldn't have.

The Japanese Lover begins with our heroine, Alma, in an assisted living facility by her own choice, one that dismays her family, undoubtedly part of her motivation.  She befriends one of the workers, Irina, and her grandson, Seth and Irina try to figure out where Alma goes on her frequent excursions from the home.

We're taken back in time as Alma shares her life story with Inna.  She was sent to America to live with relatives during WWII and never saw her birth parents again.  She grows up privileged and loved by her relatives and falls in love with the gardener's son.  The gardener and his family are imprisoned in the Japanese internment camps and the young lovers are separated.  Their love never dies and they stay in touch throughout life but conform to society and never come together.

I don't know if its Allende's translators of the last couple of books, but her prose is flat and repetitive. The story goes off on tangents with characters (Alma's long lost brother) showing up for a few pages then disappearing again.  I was disappointed.


Published: 2015  Read: December 2015  Genre: Fiction