Narratives of Positive Aging

In Narratives of Positive Aging Amia Lieblich presents a qualitative study that explores the life narratives of elderly men and women who engage in practices of positive aging. They belong to a spontaneous community that assembles daily early in the morning on a beach near Tel-Aviv Israel. At the seaside the elders practice various outdoor sports and converse over coffee at the local café. Based on their narratives procured by individual open-ended interviews and the author''s participant observation the book explores the impact of routine physical activity and social relationships on successful aging. Lieblich additionally presents an analysis of the tension-minimizing discourse adopted at the café and the pleasant bubble-like environment it fosters amongst the community members. Finally the book debates the adaptive role of narrating one''s life story and its perceived manifestation of wisdom. A combination of complete life stories and extracts of conversations recorded on the beach color every chapter. These texts are complimented and elucidated by a variety of academic claims theories and findings concerning narratives and aging. This book based on an Israeli field study may be viewed both as a local case study as well as a lesson relevant to aging everywhere.