Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures in Eldercare

Read Ira Rosofsky's posts on the Penguin Blog

A candid, humane, and improbably humorous look at the world of eldercare

In nursing homes across the country, members of the Greatest Generation are living out their last days. Life is a succession of pokes and prods, medications, TV, bingo, and, possibly, talking to Ira Rosofsky. With a compassionate eye but mordant wit, Rosofsky, a psychologist charged with gauging the mental health of his elders, reveals a culture based not in the empathy of caretaking, but rather in the coolly detached bureaucracy of Medicare and Medicaid.

A portrayal of what is increasingly becoming the last slice of life for many, Nasty, Brutish, and Long is also a baby boomer's poignant meditation on mortality, a reflection on his caregiving for his parents' final days, and an examination of the choices that we, as a society, have made about health care for the elderly who are no longer of sound mind and body.

Ira Rosofsky is a psychologist who has years of experience serving residents in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and the Advocate newspapers of New England. He lives with his wife and their three children in New Haven, CT.