Recessional

by James A. Michener

MICHENER IS AMERICA'S BEST WRITER.
--The Pittsburgh Press

In his stunning new novel, bestselling novelist James A. Michener draws on his unparalleled gift for storytelling, his deep understanding of American society, and his own life experiences to illuminate the challenges of aging and the folly of youth in a Florida retirement home known as the Palms.
As the new, young director of the Palms, Andy Zorn suffers no shortage of loving support and wise advice from his elders, a group of five passionate, outspoken residents who refuse to accept the passive roles that both society and family have handed them. Yet past scandal has driven Zorn to despondency, until he meets an extraordinary young woman in the rehab wing, who has been forced to rebuild her life in the face of crippling injuries. Now Zorn finds himself falling in love--and with the help and gentle jabs from his more mature friends, he discovers a wonderful new purpose in life....

Michener hooks you with wonderfully humorous scenes. These are then interwoven between the moments of pain and heartache brought about by life choices we all must make.
--Tulsa World

Engaging...One will be drawn into the novelist's world....The lush natural setting provides James Michener plenty to show and tell.
--The Washington Times

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels, Audiobook, Contemporary, Book Club, American

540 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

James Albert Michener is best known for his sweeping multi-generation historical fiction sagas, usually focusing on and titled after a particular geographical region. His first novel, Tales of the South Pacific , which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer; founded an MFA program now, named the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin; and made substantial contributions to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, best known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a room containing Michener's own typewriter, books, and various memorabilia.

Michener's entry in Who's Who in America says he was born on Feb. 3, 1907. But he said in his 1992 memoirs that the circumstances of his birth remained cloudy and he did not know just when he was born or who his parents were.

Reviews

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michener is known for his beautiful writing and his grand historical epics. This, his last novel is very different, written towards the end of his life when obviously there were important things on his mind.

Andy Zorn is a young disgraced obstetrician working in Chicago. We meet him as he is packing his bags and heading south. He is despondent after a nasty divorce and the realization that he can no longer afford the increased premiums for his liability insurance,the result of losing two fraudulent malpractice cases. The fact that these cases were won by one lawyer who used devious tactics to accomplish his goal does not help him. So Andy has decided to pack it in, leave his chosen profession and his prosperous clinic and head to Florida to take a position as a manager for a large retirement complex near Tampa. He will not be taking on medical duties, only the administrative aspects of bringing this high class facility called The Palms to better profitability. From this point on, as the narrative unfolds, Michener explores the different challenges Zorn faces in managing the facility as well as the numerous challenges every grown adult faces as he ages and realizes the inevitable, that he will soon exit this life.

Michener is well known for his prodigious research, an important initial step when writing his novels. This one is no exception. Through his characters he explores the issues of aging, feminism, and the difficulties the elderly encounter when trying to negotiate the healthcare bureaucracy. He also comments on the unusual complementarity of bizarrely mismatched couples and how personal, professional and academic lives can be destroyed by controversy. Now as they prepare themselves mentally and emotionally to make their departure from this life, the residents of the Palms spend time recalling significant moments from the past including their regrets and failings. They remember those old times when they saw things so clearly. The characters at this facility do not brood about death but it comes often into their thoughts.

Medically, Michener tackles the mysteries of Alzheimer’s, human genetics, AIDS, cancer treatment and the proliferation of litigation medicine. In terms of the challenges facing administrators he enlightens us on the management of a profitable health care facility with its complicated financials and even the more mundane but equally challenging aspects of providing food everyone enjoys and the perils of allocating parking spots. Additionally he educates us on the thorny issue of living wills and the tyranny of hovering mean spirited children expecting big payouts when their parents die.

The plot of this book is weak and the discussions Michener shares with his readers feel like small essays tacked on to this frail vulnerable frame. The characters do not drive the plot, the narrative about the complex is the driver, and so only two of the characters (Zorn and Nora, his head nurse) are fleshed out to any extent.

The romantic excursions were a bit off putting and felt to me more like a soap opera than something belonging in a Michener novel. I also found the inner dialogue of the rattlesnake somewhat unusual and unnecessary. However, I must also add that Michener’s writing shines through as always and therein lies the small pleasure in this book.

It is interesting to note the passages on suicide and euthanasia given the way Michener ended his life. He died at the age of 90 after noting that he had accomplished everything he wanted to do. And so, he chose to stop the thrice weekly dialysis treatments that had maintained his health.

Given the book was written in the mid-eighties when Michener was already 87 years old and was published in 1994, some of the medical information is dated by new knowledge. That is to be expected, but many of the daunting issues Michener raises are still before us today. This last novel was in part inspired by the time he spent in a nursing home towards the end of his life and he completed the research and wrote the book while he was there.

This is not one of my recommended reads. It is a manageable 540 pages and it is thought provoking at times, but on the whole I was disappointed. However when you realize what this author produced at his age and consider the total of 41 volumes in his lifetime, you must admit he had a very productive life. I must say I do feel uncomfortable criticizing such a well known and recognized writer, however one can never expect an author to produce high quality work every single time.

[Doris Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read it, not only for the enjoyment of the good story, but also to deeply think individually about our own aging and our own mortality. The author was contemplating his own failing health while he was kept alive by kidney dialysis. After doing his research and considering his own options, he decided to move into an up-scale facility in Florida. While he lived there and contemplated his own "recession" from life, he wrote this, his last book: "Recessional".

The protagonist is a lawyer who is hired to move to Tampa, Florida to manage a senior living complex for the aging. It seems the facility offers independent living in a retirement community, then with failing health they can move into an assisted living facility, then when unable to fully function, they can move into a nursing home or hospice - all at the same location.

The underlying story is entertaining, with young people and romance for the protagonist. There are vignettes of the residents in the facility. Visitors and children of the residents add to the story, which is thoughtful but still quite entertaining and engaging.

The most interesting part to me was that the story is interwoven with ideas of individual mortality and senility and suicide and euthanasia and end-of-life issues which before this book I had only thought of shallowly. I was inside the mind of Michener! He was with full awareness of the remaining quality of his life on dialysis, and after a time, he decided to pull the plug. He died two weeks after he stopped dialysis at the age of ninety.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sure read this book at an interesting point in my life. At age 62 you are surely becoming aware your body is NOT keeping up with the age your mind is and you start thinking about your aging life. Also my parents and my husband's dad are still alive and issues are starting to pop up and I am clueless about how to help them or even what to do. The one thing as many in this book did was to make aging easier on your children. This was a stepping stone to aging gracefully and I will read a book on how to deal with aging parents soon so I can understand what is expected of them and of us children that are also aging!

[Teresa Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this book around for many years, yet when I picked it up this week, I sped through it.

I love James Mitchener, although in general I have to be in the mood to tackle one of his sweeping tomes. Recessional was different. It is a tighter story than his general sweeping tale of a place (think Tales of the South Pacific or Hawaii). The story of a doctor running from his profession due to lawsuits and high insurance premiums, it becomes a panorama of an upscale Florida retirement community. The residents and staff are fascinating, the backstory of making such a community popular and profitable interesting as well. My parents are in just such a community, although not in Florida, and what I read rang true in many ways. Michener adds his love of place in the descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Tampa community, and I found those portions of the story rewarding as well. Many of the vignettes of the residents left me teary-eyed. This book may not be for everyone, but I found it well-written and enjoyable.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it pains me I cannot award more than 3 stars for this, the final novel written by one of my favorite authors James Michener . This is a story of an up scale retirement colony and the efforts of a disgraced former medical doctor to improve profits margins . I was looking forward to enjoying a story of lives lived well as well as not as easily. I missed the grand , historical in depth characters and plot that I experienced in other JM books Several stories develop stemming from the various residents and looming social problems as viewed thru 1990's eyes. Much discussion of women's rights, mixed racial relationships,poor vs wealthy , right to die , advance medical mandates, general worthiness of living into the 80s and 90s are played out . I found so many topics tiresome. The language so off putting...feminine women without balancing masculine characteristics tending to nymphomania? AIDS patients eased to self induced death? The repeated notation of the regal beauty of an advanced alzheimer patient? 80 year old gents reliving glory days by building a plane ? Sneaking into the terminally ill portion of the faucilty to free a brain dead women from her hospital machines by dressing as a ghost!? So many paragraphs are devoted to the latest medical marvels like MRI, cat scans, gene genome project.Maybe it's only showing its age but this was an effort to finish.

[John Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I ever read James Michener? Or maybe his earlier works were more engaging. I rank this with his "The Drifters", a pathetic attempt by an out-of-touch, ivory-tower, middle-aged author at capturing the spirit of the hippie days.

[Saski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Argh!!!!!

And again I say, “Argh!!!!”

I had forgotten why I had stopped reading Michener books. I still have this lingering memory back 40 plus years ago of having absolutely loved The Source, so much so that I read it twice, back then. But when I read it a third time more recently, its flaws are what stood out to me.

Now I remember: So formulaic. I swear he must have had a huge file of everything he wanted to give a mini lecture on and categorized them by what story they might fit into. And thus we have the construct: each chapter a mini lecture on chromosomes, euthanasia, rattle snakes (he got this one wrong – rattlers can strike without either coiling or rattling, it’s just not very common), nobility in Great Britain, betting at horse races, HIV, yogurt machines, cancer treatments, etc, etc etc, some of which are no longer even accurate.

So much for the plot, now for his handling of the characters. Each one introduced with a full physical description, which if a woman must include how beautiful, if a man how physical. Often characters are given a label, for example, cracker, and from then on we are reminded of said label each time the character appears. And these poor characters are so flat they are transparent. It’s so boring!!

Finally, I would like to complain of the lack of spontaneity. For just one example, I could tell at the instant of the accident that she would be the woman the doc would end up with. I confess, though, I got one prediction wrong. Right at the beginning it seemed certain sure that the big climax would be a powerful hurricane to prove the “chain of small islands” could not always protect The Palms from its effects. But no, that didn’t happen, because actually, there was no climax….

So why, I hear you ask, did you read this book? Well, it was offered to me with a strong recommendation, an insistence even. You see, my mother had just moved in to a very similar facility (except at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California – you can see what climax awaits them). This kind soul thought this novel would help me understand what my mother was up against. Sigh!

[Wilma Eichler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel by one of my favorite authors. Not sure how I missed this book. 4 stars only because parts are dated, but the gist of the book makes me wonder if it had any part in the decisions he made in his own life. When I was working as a dialysis nurse, it was reported that James Michener, then in his 90's, was in renal failure and was receiving dialysis. I read that he did not want to continue his life in this manner so got his affairs in order, then stopped his dialysis, dying about 2 weeks later. I was so sad to know that I would never read another of his books. This book is about the "recessional " of life and being able to live and die with dignity. Recommended.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I think Michener wrote these enormous books so he could write essays on modern problems. This is no exception, but it was still an excellent book. The setting is a retirement home near Tampa in 1993. The mostly wealthy residents' discussion of the state of health care could have been plucked from today's conversations. The compassionate treatment of AIDS and Alzheimer's patients and euthanasia were discussed at length. Michener is ambivalent about the morality of euthanasia, but sees less of a problem when a legal living will is in force. As always, Michener's characters are interesting and varied. Judge Noble's death was particularly moving. I liked seeing the inner workings of an organization such as The Palms--what it takes to really run such a place while balancing legal issues, comfort of the residents, and the difficulty of having many people in a small space.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Michener book I've ever read, and I really liked it. Reading about the day-to-day life and workings of an assisted living facility was very interesting. I will definitely read other Michener books in the future based on how much I liked this one.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason I thought I had read this, Michener's last novel but then I remember passing on it as it seem a bit depressing for someone who was only 48 in 1994. Now, here I am, about to turn 78,living in a retirement community near Tampa so the parallels to my life can't be denied.

And, as anyone who has read his work knows, Michener tells a mean story, draws you in, introduces you to interesting characters and produces well researched plot elements. Andy Zorn is a doctor, sued out of the practice of medicine who ends up running a Florida retirement community. His life is interesting as are many of the residents. Reminds me in a way of the John Kennedy quote, greeting a group of Nobel prize winners at the white house - "Never has so much intellectual talent gathered at a single table since Thomas Jefferson dined alone!" The community in the story does do a bit of overkill at praising the more accomplished residents and I downgraded the book a bit since it often comes across as a collection of anecdotes. Some of which are pretty creative - death by Pelican for example, or how to deal with the pest who moves in only to be sure that no one's family gets to exercise the living will executed by the dying relative.

I enjoyed the way he integrated the natural world into the tale but he has always been noted for that. Some of the issues he raises have been "solved", the AIDS crisis or the human genome map but still some interesting history and backround.

Many of the authors I have enjoyed over the years, I have had personal correspondence with or have met them at signings and have been able to thank them for the hours of enjoyment they provided. He was one that I never got a note off to, despite his launching my interest in contemporary fiction when I was 16 with the novel "Hawaii", but it does relate to the type of community he describes. One of the big advantages of living in a retirement community is that you meet a lot of new interesting folks; one of the big drawbacks is losing those new friends when they pass far too soon. Message? Express your appreciation, now, to those who enrich your life.

[Sharon Nale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I’ve read in many many years. Depicts life in a retirement home in Florida, a special retirement home in which most of the residents are highly intelligent professional people. Main character is Andy, a medical doctor who has left the profession due to some litigious events that soured him on the profession, who is hired to manage The Palm. What makes this book so rewarding to me is (1) I am in that age group, many of whom who have taken up residence in retirement homes. Though I myself have not, I know the possibility is a strong one that my life will end in such a place. (2) These people, due to age and background differences, collectively have experienced almost everything there is to experience in life. Almost every major issue in life, politics, religion, medicine, morals, etc is touched upon in such a skillful and provocative way by Michener. Aging, feminism, cancer, healthcare, euthanasia on both end of the age spectrum; genetic engineering, Alzheimers, AIDS, living wills, death with dignity, and the reality of mean-spirited children who want to “inherit” and try to control their parents finances in order to “get more” at the end.

Michener was 87 years old when he wrote this book. It’s a serious of vignettes connected by the daily interactions of these different people all of whom seek meaning and purpose in their “autumnal” years.

I read that Michener himself suffered from kidney disease and had to do daily dialysis. After doing so for 4 years, he decide to end treatment, just as Art Buchwald did when he faced those same circumstances. He stopped treatment and let nature take its course. He said he had done everything he wanted to do in life and accomplished all he wanted to accomplish. He died at age 90.

Everything in the book rings true to my own experiences with dying, AIDS, Alzheimers, and the many life experiences of the elderly, in my family and in my church, and the neighborhood.

I was sorry it had to end. I will read it again.

It’s not an “uplifting” book, but it can be inspirational if you read it wearing that set of eyeglasses that celebrates life at all stages. Sobering, yet inspirational. I highly recommend it to anyone over the age of 50.

[H. Schussman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Michener's, but this one certainly doesn't fit his typical historical epic tales. I found it to be dated to some degree, but that's to be expected. A lot of what he grapples with is now old news... Aides, euthanasia, etc. We have developed ways of coping with them in new ways that make this novel seem archaic at times.

That being said, the process of aging in this type of setting is still very modern and relevant. I've worked in assisted-living and skilled nursing for the last 16 years. This was incredibly accurate considering he didn't work in the field. As a PT myself, I was interested in how he managed that aspect. He was close. A few things were a little far fetched, but not enough to take away from the story.

I loved the two non-human characters; the rattlesnake and the yogurt machine. The Rattler has his own scenes, with his own agenda. The yogurt machine's agenda is to not function half the time, regardless of how hard they tried to fix it. If you've ever worked in this environment, this will really hit home :) It's comical what an important subject this is to the residents of The Palms.

All-in-all, it was good. I enjoyed the interplay and progress of all the residents. I only got lost a few times with extraneous characters.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was published in 1994. It takes on a number of ethical issues that were relatively new to the country at the time: AIDS, euthanasia, living wills, and elder abuse, among others. Since they are no longer new topics these days, it's hard to decide how I'd have felt about the book if I'd read it then. Now, it seems rather dated. Also dated is Michener's casual use of the word "retarded" ("But only a retarded reader would have failed to understand ...", p. 165).

But my main complaint with the book is that there's not really enough of a plot to hold it all together. It's as though Michener had a list of issues he wanted to deal with, and came up with a skimpy plot to place them in. For the first part of the book, I kept thinking it was all set-up, and I kept waiting for the real story which I trusted would start soon. It never did. Michener's trademark detailed descriptions of places and people are here, but in a way that feels like a series of disconnected anecdotes. Altogether, I found the entire book rather dissatisfying.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book back in the mid-nineties and was surprised when it was published because my favorite author at that time was nearing ninety and living in a Tampa area nursing home. I recall much of this because I was living very close to this location on the causeway between Tampa and Clearwater. This was not his last publication, but it was, appropriately his last novel. This epic also was not Michener's most entertaining effort, but it was insightful and thoughtful and gave a realistic look into the generation that had currently been put on the shelf. So if you have a curiosity about what may be lurking around the corner, this is a suitable roadmap.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many of Michener's books. In fact, the book that turned me on to reading was The Source. I would say he is near the top of my favorite writers list. This book is no exception. I read it in spurts, putting it down for other more adventurous stories, and then picking it up again. As with Michener's other works, this one seemed slow at first, but as I continued reading, I found some striking characters. More importantly to me, however were the touching and profound insights into people experiencing their waning years. I would recommend it highly, especially for its capture of the feelings of the elderly.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the read. Looking at several serious dilemmas.

[Susan Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dear friend Florence recommended this book to me. Florence is 89yo and read this book many years ago. It was a sweet story about the lives of different elderly people who opted to live out their lives in a retirement community. This was my first James Michener book.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably 4.5 stars. A rewarding look into a retirement community. It delves into some fascinating dilemmas like euthanasia and AIDS. Recommended.

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for 400 pages, then author left story to impart his political/social agenda. 3.56 stars

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy cow, what a disappointment. I have loved other Michener novels (e.g., The Source, Alaska, Caravans) and had high hopes, but this was a stinker. Maybe because he wrote it when he was of advanced age? The copyright is 1994, but the attitudes and style are of another era. It all takes place in an age-in-place retirement center that features regular apartments, a rehab division, and nursing home sections. You have men wondering if women have regrets like men do. African-Americans speak in an ignorant-sounding black dialect; Asians are referred to as Orientals; there is reference to the "yellow-race Japanese." A white person says "Yes, Jaqmeel Reed. Where do they dream up those names?" A woman who suspects she is pregnant goes to her GP, and (remember this is 1994), he sends her to a "specialist" who "ran tests" to confirm that she's pregnant. A highly regarded female pastor says "the poor female who is 100% female with no stiffening attributes of the male is apt to become a nymphomaniac, unable to control her sexual urges." The white director of the facility "could not anticipate how the management would look upon one of their black employees daring to date a white girl. (again, this is copyrighted 1994). The supposedly college-educated residents ask each other stupid questions just so another resident can expound Michener's view on everything from living wills, to Pete Rose's legal problems, to health care costs, to how lawyers create problems. There were several wasted pages that were told from the perspective of a rattle snake and a blue heron living in the undeveloped area near the facility. A wealthy young woman who suffered two below-knee amputation is amazed to learn that women in Pakistan might have suffered more severe physical damage than she. Despite the fact there is a rehab section, the facility had no physical or occupational specialist and little equipment (and this was supposedly the chain's upper-crust flagship center). When they finally hire a PT, the guy also does occupational therapy even though that's a separate specialty, and the director brags to the father of a rehab patient about their new equipment, "we have this system of parallel bars at handgrip height...A patient who wants to test her new legs can walk between the bars and catch herself if she feels she's about to fall." Ooo, cutting edge stuff! There was barely a plot. The characters were one-dimensional and near caricatures. I was putting in notes such as "Gag me." Can't believe this loser was written by James Michener.

[Steve Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was with great trepidation that I checked this book out. I recall trying to read a couple of Michener's books decades ago, and don't even remember if I finished them. Fortunately this was an e-book, so I couldn't pre-judge it by weight alone.

A Chicago obstetrician has been found guilty of malpractice by a jury trial for two deaths, a 3 year-old and an 8 year-old, each time by a notorious sensationalist lawyer who played on feelings, not facts or evidence. There were no complications at birth, but that was irrelevant in the decisions. Needless to say, he decided to quit medicine, as many others have done. He is offered a chance to reinvigorate an underperforming elder care complex in Florida - as a director, not doctor - and he succeeds wildly.

The scope of this book reflects the concerns of an aging writer facing his own future, as he recounts the societal ills of the 1980s. Health care for the elderly was little more than providing a seat in "God's waiting room." Multi-level care facilities were beginning to define their purposes, improving on the old-fashioned nursing homes where patients were treated as inventory, like so many boxes of soap in a warehouse.

Women were barely allowed into the clergy. AIDS was a perfect killer with no hope for treatment. Blacks were openly discriminated against. Alzheimers was, and still is, an untreatable and only indirectly-diagnosed disease. Breast cancer was treated in an uncoordinated plan, based on where the patient entered into the system. Living wills were being promoted, but were not necessarily honored by courts, states or families.

As dismal as that all sounds, Michener injects large doses of humor and humanity into the story. I hope that when I need to enter the elder care system I find as warm a community as the one at the Palms (just not in Florida).

[Dave Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michener examines the assisted living (fka "Nursing Homes") industry through the characters that reside in a Florida facility known as "The Palms." This book was written during the later years of Michener's life and it is apparent that he is not at his best (The Source, Centennial, et al). The characters and situations are contrived. At times, he uses the storyline for his occasional liberal rants. One contradictory character was the clergywoman. She engages the Palms' of a think-tank composed of retired overachievers that enjoy a good debate. She uses the occasional to vent her frustrations about how the church has repressed women. She also claims that the Bible also marginalizes women. Quite the opposite is the case but the men do not take up the case. Later in the story a recently widowed man asks if he will see his wife in the hereafter. She mistakenly says that the Bible is silent and hems and haws about her faith. It's contradictory that someone as passionate as herself in the realm of feminism would be such a wimp in her chosen vocation. Occasionally, she talks about doing the "Christian" thing when it is apparent that her religion is humanism-based.
Needless to say, I can't recommend it. It is mildly entertaining but not the examination of the retirement housing industry that I was expecting from a Michener novel.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found many parallels in this book with my own life, as my father is medical director at an assisted living facility. I believe this is the first Michener work I've ever read, though I've had many of them close at hand for years. Texas, Hawaii, Alaska and others would have been more likely to have been my first Michener picks, but I was not dis-satisfied that fate allowed Recessional to be my introduction to the works of James Michener.

Recessional is James Michener's last novel and it seems obvious that he was inspired by his own experiences while at a retirement facility in the Tampa area.

I recommend this book for those middle-aged and above, especially to my father for the reason mentioned above.

Looking forward to my next James Michener!

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

On first glance,even a Michener book on the American health care system,via an expensive 'nursing home'doesn't look like a page turner.However with his skill and peerless research it turns into a very human and involving story.The centrepiece of the book is mortality,and how the government (most governments)dictate how we all meet our end,if we end up 'institutionalised' in the system.Michener is very balanced,but in the end sways very much toward Euthanasia,in my opinion.As for narrative,his characters ring true for the most part,though the younger women come across as very sterotypical,and the romantic interludes sometimes sound like 19thcentury novels,complete with'blushing brides'.Overall,and in retrospect an unusual topic for a novel handled superbly.

[Wilma Eichler]

Vintage Michener

A novel by one of my favorite authors. Not sure how I missed this book. 4 stars only because parts are dated, but the gist of the book makes me wonder if it had any part in the decisions he made in his own life. When I was working as a dialysis nurse, it was reported that James Michener, then in his 90's, was in renal failure and was receiving dialysis. I read that he did not want to continue his life in this manner so got his affairs in order, then stopped his dialysis, dying about 2 weeks later. I was so sad to know that I would never read another of his books. This book is about the "recessional " of life and being able to live and die with dignity. Recommended.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who wonder what a retirement facility is, this is a definitive explanation (expose?). This one is set in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, and has three sections: (A) Fully ambulatory (can drive, etc.), in a full apartment, with an option to eat one meal per day in a communal dining room; (B) Assisted living (needs some help); (C) "Health Center" (bedridden/hospice). It focuses on a new director, who is a very likable doctor from Illinois but cannot practice in Florida. Included as conflicts are plans to build an addition on some open land and threats by a right-to-life organization. Very readable, as Michener always is.

[Luisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters in this book were all really appealing, and I really liked the retirement community setting. There were a lot of interesting story lines, as well. But I have to say, quite a bit of the dialogue was pretty strange and unnatural. A few other things seemed unrealistic, such as the fact that the main character in the book, a doctor, didn't really know about AIDS and Alzheimer's Disease before working at The Palms. Ok, I know that in the 90s (and still today) we knew very little about these diseases, but he's a doctor, so it just seemed strange. Not that big of a deal, but the combination did decrease my enjoyment of the book.

[Angelie · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally! im done reading this book. and i must say, its beyond good reads... its a must read... very profound. very inspiring. very good! amazing! captivating! the characters were charming and lovable. i love the tertulias, andy zorn, betsy, the mallory's, mr.muley dugan and his wife who has alzheimers, nora varney, ken krenek, reverend quade, berta umlauf and almost everyone... i just dislike mr. hasslebrook... hehe... mr. michener approached death with ease but with a big impact to the heart of the reader. its wonderfully done.

[Grandma Mush · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read and very timely for me. Friends are moving into a retirement home and I have a home in a senior community. This book encompasses situation from both places because it deals with the residents and new director of a large retirement complex. There was just enough story line to keep it like a novel rather than a documentary but I do think the ending was unsatisfactory. Too many people were killed off. Now I know in communities like these people die but these were often unusual deaths. The book gave my hubby and me some food for thought though.