Every Day Is Sunday

Describes daily life at retirement communities and leisure villages in New Jersey, Arizona, Florida, and California

This witty and winning book by a prolific humorist (I Hear America Mating and The I-Hate-Preppies Handbook, etc.) will especially amuse those under age 60 and probably those beyond as well. Schoenstein visited retirement communities from New York and New Jersey to Florida, Arizona and California and here reports on what he found. Most of the residents of these isolated villages (some of the settlements are large enough to be called cities) are content indeed to be where they are. There is homogeneity of population, security is tight and, above all, families with young children are excluded. Not all residents, of course, find retirement villages blissful and Schoenstein, himself 51, has a special affinity for them. His self-mockery and his wry observations about the communities he called at make his survey vastly entertaining. Foreign rights: William Morrow. January 21
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Schoenstein travels coast to coast visiting retirement communities, with the aim of assessing the quality of life of their inhabitants, the ``dropouts'' (as he calls them) from a society which avowedly embraces youth and action more than age and wisdom. What emerges is an almost flippant account by this 51-year-old author, self-declared ``America's oldest adolescent,'' of the often cocoon-like existence of post middle-age men and women in these mostly sun-drenched ``leisure villages.'' There are some real concerns raisedloneliness, absence of meaningful activity and friendship for many older people, fears, worriesbut in the end it seems that Schoenstein's preoccupation with his own self-image and future is the real message. Not recommended. Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Agricultural & Technical Coll. Lib., Alfred
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.