Call number
305.26 KID
Collection
Genres
Publication
Houghton Mifflin (1993), Edition: 1st, 352 pages
Description
"Two old men in a little room. Together they represent some one hundred and sixty years of memory, of hope and achievement and sorrow - of life. They are residents of Linda Manor, a nursing home. What will become of them now?" "Once again, in the humble materials of daily life, Tracy Kidder - the author of House and Among Schoolchildren - has discovered a story of breathtaking intensity and depth. Old Friends introduces us to Lou Freed and Joe Torchio, strangers thrust together as roommates. They discover, as Kidder writes, that the problem of Linda Manor is "the universal problem of separateness," and we watch as, movingly, they set about solving it, with camaraderie and friendship, and ultimately love." "Tracy Kidder has won the Pulitzer Prize and countless other awards for his best-selling portraits of American life. Now he confronts his greatest theme in this close-in study of old age. With the exactitude and the rich human sympathies for which he has become famous, Kidder opens up this world to us as if it were a wondrous new country - a country that turns out to be very like one's native land." "Old Friends takes place almost entirely in Linda Manor, and its residents become urgently alive - struggling still with their circumstances, their pasts, and the challenge of living a moral life. For all its unflinching reportage, Old Friends is laced with comedy, sometimes with gentle wit, sometimes with farce. In the end, it reminds us of the great continuities, of the possibilities for renewal in the face of mortality, of the survival to the very end of all that is truly essential about life. This is Tracy Kidder's most affecting, and most important, book to date."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
There are many reviews about Old Friends that start off with, "this was hard to read." I have to wonder how many of those reviewers are administrators at retirement/nursing/convalescent homes. Do they see their own facilities as described by Kidder? It is easy to flash back to the experiences of a
Show More
loved one in such a place. My own grandparents lingered in nursing homes until their deaths. I can remember the overwhelming smell of antiseptic and urine; my father reading an activity board and commenting on a "mystery" ride. "Just don't get into any any black, squared vehicles" he quipped. Funny, But not. Kidder's account of life inside Linda Manor is frank and unflinching. He also writes with a profound sensitivity, introducing patients as people with past lives and present feelings. They aren't subjects used to illustrate a point. You feel for these people because their character development is as fleshed out as if it were a fictional account. It's beautiful in a haunting way. Show Less
LibraryThing member bherner
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.
LibraryThing member RachelPenso
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).
LibraryThing member shazjhb
I work with geriatric people and so was very moved by this book. However, in 2010 life is very different in facilities and if Tracy Kidder had to visit a nursing home now he would be shocked and very sad. This should be required reading for every medical professional and every owner of a facility
Show More
for the elderly. Show Less
LibraryThing member satyridae
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.
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member smallself
I was curious because I work as a dishwasher in an assisted living residence, so I felt like washing away any residual teenager feelings for old people. From both the book and my own experiences, it’s obvious now that most elderly people are a lot more like teenagers than Elders. I say that with
I mean, if you go to a church, you think that old people are serious folk. But if you work in assisted living, you know better. It’s not all their fault, because we look to the body as a culture, so a lot of old people are probably embarrassed by being old and try to act like wrinkly young people. Working in food service probably exaggerates this (the way a church setting would minimize it) but many elderly people are still looking to their belly to satisfy them, just like everybody else. Materially a lot of them do fine. Where I work my late-working-age boss the cook explained to me that the food they serve there is as good as the food he eats on vacation. It’s also usually very healthy, which is why I eat as much of it as I can get. Vegetables at every dinner. Of course, a lot of the residents ask to be given no vegetables. A lot of them complain that it doesn’t taste good. Sometimes they’ll get a choice between veal and fish (that gets thrown away if people don’t eat it that night because of state regs) and ask for grilled cheese that has to made specially for them.
I don’t say that because I think that society has served them especially well. Maybe not as poorly as some of the nursing aides, a department which is basically a casting call for “The Color Purple”. But what’s bad is what they’re taught. “If you feel a deep unease you can’t explain, complain about the food.” That’s what’s attended to: materiality. And about that, they don’t really understand to complain.
To return to the book more specifically, I thought it was a pretty good portrait of that unease of being alive, the suffering of being awake. That and: “A person in a nursing home has a lot of time to contemplate the shortness of what’s left and summon up regrets.” I didn’t have many big a-ha moments, but if you know what he’s talking about already, you know he’s telling it like it is.
Show More
some reluctance because I’m not a teenager anymore and it’s very easy for me to play Pharisee. A lot of my family is like that, which is why I acted out before, only to age into being a lot like that. But I digress. I mean, if you go to a church, you think that old people are serious folk. But if you work in assisted living, you know better. It’s not all their fault, because we look to the body as a culture, so a lot of old people are probably embarrassed by being old and try to act like wrinkly young people. Working in food service probably exaggerates this (the way a church setting would minimize it) but many elderly people are still looking to their belly to satisfy them, just like everybody else. Materially a lot of them do fine. Where I work my late-working-age boss the cook explained to me that the food they serve there is as good as the food he eats on vacation. It’s also usually very healthy, which is why I eat as much of it as I can get. Vegetables at every dinner. Of course, a lot of the residents ask to be given no vegetables. A lot of them complain that it doesn’t taste good. Sometimes they’ll get a choice between veal and fish (that gets thrown away if people don’t eat it that night because of state regs) and ask for grilled cheese that has to made specially for them.
I don’t say that because I think that society has served them especially well. Maybe not as poorly as some of the nursing aides, a department which is basically a casting call for “The Color Purple”. But what’s bad is what they’re taught. “If you feel a deep unease you can’t explain, complain about the food.” That’s what’s attended to: materiality. And about that, they don’t really understand to complain.
To return to the book more specifically, I thought it was a pretty good portrait of that unease of being alive, the suffering of being awake. That and: “A person in a nursing home has a lot of time to contemplate the shortness of what’s left and summon up regrets.” I didn’t have many big a-ha moments, but if you know what he’s talking about already, you know he’s telling it like it is.
Show Less
LibraryThing member FormerEnglishTeacher
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member susandennis
In the 80's I read Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine. I remember being so rivited by it that I read it twice. The subject of his next books didn't interest me and I forgot about him. Recently I picked up this one - about the residents of a nursing home in New England. It was interesting to
Show More
meet all the people. Not riviting but interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member detailmuse
This is a sort of year-long documentary about the residents and staff of a Massachusetts nursing home, primarily two men (Joe in his 70s and Lou in his 90s) who grow from being irritated with one another when placed as roommates, to becoming caring friends. Kidder’s narrative is open-eyed and
Show More
compassionate. Show Less
Pages
352
ISBN
0395593034 / 9780395593035