A View from Life's Edge - (Global Perspectives on Aging) by Corinne G Dempsey

About the Book

"In conversation with ninety-one women over the age of eighty in California, northern Iceland, south India, and among Sisters of St. Joseph in western New York, A View from Life's Edge explores how, in the face of death, a sense of what really matters can clarify. Here we find a loosening of certitudes normally meant to keep life's unwieldiness at bay, a chipping away at the illusion that any of us are captains of our own perfectly sailing ships. Reflecting on stories and opinions shared with her across the globe, Dempsey describes how a countercultural realism and an expanded sense of wonder repeatedly emerge in later life. These are offerings that call for our attention and yet face a double challenge. In as much as we strive to deny life's finitude, we deny older adults their voices. A central conundrum of ageism is that we silence out of fear that which could quell our fears"--

Book Synopsis

In today's death-denying, success-driven society, older women's countercultural voices call for our attention. Recounting emotionally charged conversations from across the world, A View from Life's Edge reflects on women's comfort with impending death, gratitude forged by catastrophe, and humility that makes way for wonder.

Speaking with nearly one hundred women over the age of eighty in four locations--northern Iceland, south India, a retirement community in California, and a convent in upstate New York--Corinne G. Dempsey finds that, as we near life's end, we gain clarity about what really matters in life. Women's stories and reflections, in which sorrow and loss are central to a life well lived, help to expand our sense of what it means to be human.

Drawing on the paradoxical wisdom of world religions and mystical traditions to frame late-life tendencies across cultures, Dempsey portrays these accounts as a corrective to mainstream values that defeat and diminish us. Dempsey encourages us to turn away from ageist fears rather than denying life's inevitable end. Learning from older women's perspectives, we might move their edge-of-life views closer to the center.

Review Quotes

"A rich and inspiring constellation of stories about splendid human imperfection, told by women who have freed themselves from opinions about aging. Put in a context of critical gerontology and spiritual questioning, this is an illuminating volume about living a finite life."--Jan Baars "author of Aging and the Art of Living"

"Blending ethnography with lyrical storytelling, Dempsey explores the tension between the vulnerability of late life and the moments of enduring beauty and wonder that can break through. These pages remind us that while old age may not guarantee wisdom, it may offer a view worth stopping for."--Anna I. Corwin "author of Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well"

About the Author

CORINNE G. DEMPSEY is a professor and the chair of religious studies at Nazareth University in Rochester, NY. Her previous works include Bridges between Worlds: Spirits and Spirit Work in Northern Iceland and Bringing the Sacred down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion.