Tales from Rhapsody Home: Or Reporting Live from Our Last Resort

by Gould, John

• ISBN13: 9780156010832
• ISBN10: 0156010836
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

When a feisty ninety-two-year-old Mainer took up residence in an assisted-living facility, he found there were at least four things he could do about it: move, die, get over it, or write this book.For the past forty-two years, Down East Yankee John Gould has written about and been a staunch observer of the human condition. Here, Gould turns his perceptively critical lens toward lives as they are lived in an assisted-living facility. Five years ago, even though growing old still felt like an afterthought, Gould and his wife needed to move to an assisted-living community, henceforth known as "Rhapsody Home." Captivatingly charming, sarcastic, despairing, flip, taciturn, erudite, and altogether wonderful, Gould-an American original and a perfect narrator-tells the disagreeable truth about the move to Rhapsody Home. From the chef who quit because he couldn't stand the food to the apartment windows that were designed never to open, Gould, with razor sharp wit and a knack for turning a phrase, proves you can write a funny book about this very serious subject. With a new epilogue, this is a mixture of personal narrative and skillful reportage-a remarkable first-person account of what it's like to live in an assisted-living facility, and a much needed look at the way we provide for our elders.

Author Biography

John Gould has lived his whole life in Maine. He is the author of twenty-nine books, most of them about the people and character of his home state. Now ninety-three and still writing his weekly column (which began in 1942) in the Christian Science Monitor, Gould and his wife lived in the real Rhapsody Home for five years. He now lives in Rockland, Maine.

Table of Contents

A Note from the Author	p. xi
In the Beginning	p. 1
The Window Saga Part I: What I Tell You Three Times Is True	p. 5
Who Had More Fun?	p. 11
Full Circle	p. 17
Without Theo	p. 23
One to Nine	p. 29
The Perfect Tomato	p. 35
More about Dirty Windows and the View at Rhapsody Home	p. 45
Activities	p. 53
Dr. Plummer	p. 59
The Window Saga Part II: Fan Notes	p. 67
Cooking School	p. 73
Grievances Regarding Dining	p. 79
Wise Old Bongo	p. 85
The Good Things, Too	p. 91
The Two Keiths	p. 99
She Couldn't Pee	p. 107
An Emergency?	p. 113
Cribbage and Cookies	p. 119
Insurance Truth	p. 125
Not All Beans Are Made the Same	p. 133
The Window Saga Part III: What's That Noise?	p. 141
Grandfather Falls	p. 145
Testing Doctors	p. 151
What You Have to Do Is...	p. 157
Staff of Life	p. 163
Dining Out	p. 171
Old Friends	p. 175
Much Too Young?	p. 179
Afterthought	p. 183
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