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Publication
Description
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Millions of readers literally defined their lives through Gail Sheehy's landmark bestseller Passages. Seven years ago she set out to write a sequel, but instead she discovered a historic revolution in the adult life cycle. . . People are taking longer to grow up and much longer to die. A fifty-year-old woman--who remains free of cancer and heart disease-- can expect to see her ninety-second birthday. Men, too, can expect a dramatically lengthened life span. The old demarcations and descriptions of adulthood--beginning at twenty-one and ending at sixty-five--are hopelessly out of date. In New Passages, Gail Sheehy discovers and maps out a completely new frontier--a Second Adulthood in middle life. "Stop and recalculate," Sheehy writes. "Imagine the day you turn forty-five as the infancy of another life." Instead of declining, men and women who embrace a Second Adulthood are progressing through entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity--beyond both male and female menopause. Through hundreds of personal and group interviews, national surveys of professionals and working-class people, and fresh findings extracted from fifty years of U.S. Census reports, Sheehy vividly dramatizes these newly developing stages. Combining the scholar's ability to synthesize data with the novelist's gift for storytelling, she allows us to make sense of our own lives by understanding others like us. New Passages tells us we have the ability to customize our own life cycle. This groundbreaking work is certain to awaken and permanently alter the way we think about ourselves. "SHEEHY CLEARLY STATES IDEAS ABOUT LIFE THAT HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN AS CLEARLY STATED." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "AN OPTIMISTIC ANALYSIS OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT IN PESSIMISTIC TIMES. . . It is grounded in the economic and psychological realities that make adult life so complex today." --The New York Times Book Review… (more)
User reviews
In the Second Adulthood that starts at age 45, men and women are becoming more established in their careers. This is the time that unexpected events begin to happen. It could be sickness, divorce, loss of a spouse, remarriage, or being laid off from work. It becomes a challenge to adjust to these setbacks, so some workers have to switch gears, and find new vocations. Families change into non-traditional ones with blended households. Later in life, women become independent and more assertive after menopause. At this time in their 60s they might have the responsibility for caring for an ailing spouse, and even their own parents.
People are living longer. In later life Sheehy talks about those who begin new hobbies, travel, or decide to live alone. The author described how some women become sexually liberated. Wise women mentor younger ones. Their fulfillment is enhanced by their adoption of new approaches to life. Some on this quest lead them to be more spiritual. Women become members of groups that meet to support other women. They discuss issues concerning the dreams, and future of their lives.
The book New Passages is however dated, since it was published in 1996. It gives information about the benefits of estrogen for women that have since been known to cause cancer. Sheehy seems to focus on the well-to-do in the society. Individuals the writer used in her case studies were people of the upper class and professionals. The work would have been more appealing if it had surveyed a broader cross section of respondents. Any mention about blue-collar workers was rather limited.