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A powerful and beautiful novella of one woman, consigned to a dreary retirement home, who wages a defiant battle against the dulling forces around her After seventy-six-year-old Caro Spencer suffers a heart attack, her family sends her to a private retirement home to wait out the rest of her days. Her memory growing fuzzy, Caro decides to keep a journal to document the daily goings-on-her feelings of confinement and boredom; her distrust of the home's owner, Harriet Hatfield, and her daughter, Rose; her pity for the more incapacitated residents; her resentment of her brother, John, for leaving her alone. The journal entries describe not only her frustrations, but also small moments of beauty-found in a welcome visit from her minister, or in watching a bird in the garden. But as she writes, Caro grows increasingly sensitive to the casual atrocities of retirement-home life. Even as she acknowledges her mind is beginning to fail, she is determined to fight back against the injustices foisted upon the home's occupants. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.
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Reviews
"A brief, strong statement . . . A convincing record of evil done and good intentions gone astray . . . A powerful indictment."
The New York Times Book Review
"May Sarton has never been better than she is in this beautiful, harrowing novel about being old, unwanted, yet refusing to give up. . . . The problems of old age have been detailed by sociologists but only a novel as searching and deeply felt as this one can bring them so close to the bone."
The Boston Globe
"An important, brilliant novel, dealing with the problem we'd all rather close our eyes to. As I read, I shared the anger and the righteous indignation which I felt behind every line. But more than this, the anger and indignation are always contained by compassion, compassion which purges and redeems."
The Boston Globe