The Age of Longevity delves into the implications and opportunities resulting from the expansion of the length of life in recent decades. Given the demographic shift that is currently afoot, these additional years of life (and what to do with them) is a focal point of the book. The authors, Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, masterfully weave a narrative that melds quantitative research with qualitative accounts from researchers, business persons and older adults. Each of the ten chapters takes a slightly different perspective on the issues surrounding longevity, but never strays from the optimistic tone and overall message of positivity and opportunity.
Chapter One, ‘Reimagining Tomorrow’, provides the foundation upon which the rest of the book builds, illuminating the underpinning mechanisms and implications of increased life expectancy. Important concepts, such as compression of morbidity and healthy life expectancy, are detailed, providing the reader with insights that go beyond the rote extension of life. The acknowledgement of the ‘adding life to years’ in the context of additional years added to life is addressed early and remains a pervasive theme throughout the book.
Chapters Two to Five (‘The Creative Spark’; Productivity – Who Can Keep Up?’; ‘Side by Side – The Multigenerational Workforce’; ‘Gray Ambition’) focus on aspects of productivity in a changing world. Through the use of myriad examples and anecdotes, an optimistic picture of the future is painted: many older adults continue to be highly creative, valuable members of the workforce. Many of these anecdotes are from fairly extreme outliers, e.g. 91-year-old Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian's first major retrospective in the United States of America being held in New York's Guggenheim (p. 36) or octogenarian billionaire Warren Buffet (p. 97); however, there are also examples from individuals much closer to the mean, making these passages more relatable. Whilst the overarching message is that older adults can achieve much of the success of their younger colleagues, these thoughts are grounded in reality and supplemented with strategies for accommodating the challenges of ageing.
Changing dynamics of relationships are the focus of Chapters Six to Eight (‘The Changing Face of Marriage’; ‘The Seventy-year Itch’; ‘The New World of Parenting’). Indeed, just as life expectancy has increased, the potential length of one's marriage has increased proportionally. Consequently, there are many issues that previous generations have not dealt with in such great number, such as divorce, second (or third) marriage(s) and unmarried co-habitation. These chapters highlight these shifting trends in marriage, discussing many of their implications for better (or worse) wellbeing. Further, a full chapter is dedicated to sexual intimacy amongst older adults; highlighting the realities and possibilities of maintaining a fulfilling sex life throughout the lifecourse. This suite of chapters on relationships concludes by examining the changing dynamics of parenting roles. Older adults may be taking care of their own parents, their children and their grandchildren; a dynamic unheard of in previous generations. These chapters provide an intriguing overview of the challenges and opportunities ahead for an ageing population with respect to their social networks and relationships.
The book concludes with a look forward to what changes might be on the horizon and how older adults might face these challenges using the strategies outlined in the previous chapters. There has been ongoing work on the extension of life beyond the limits of current human lifespan that may offer individuals hundreds of years of longevity. Chapter Nine (‘The Near Frontier’) highlights the advances in medical research that may facilitate these extreme lifespans and some of the implications of these regenerative body parts. Finally, the authors provide a well-articulated summary of the previous chapters’ take-home messages. The final chapter (‘Making it Happen’) highlights the cohesive nature of the narrative created in the book and leaves the reader with valuable food for thought.
On the whole, I found The Age of Longevity an immensely readable and enjoyable text. I would not expect to see this listed as an undergraduate text, but it provides enough research to stimulate the pleasure reader, whilst maintaining their attention. Personally, I found many of the pop culture references, e.g. Brad Pitt in World War Z (p. 69), somewhat out of place, but I don't feel as though this detracted from the book on the whole. Overall, an engaging read for anyone interested in what the future might hold for an ageing population.
