If you form any ideas about this book's content based on the title (or even the description), put them firmly to one side, now. At least half of this well-written and interesting book is purely personal, as the author -- a veteran journalist -- contemplates his own diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in his 40s, which forces him to embark on his person journey toward age and the inevitable recognition of mortality many years before the rest of his fellow baby boomers will have to (reluctantly) follow suit.
It's not that this personal content is uninteresting -- Kinsley recounts his experience with tests to measure his cognitive abilities, as he discourses on the importance of progressing through old age while hanging onto one's marbles (i.e. that longevity alone isn't the measure of a "good" old age), discourses on what it's like to live with Parkinson's, and to endure brain surgery that has helped to stall the progress of many symptoms. It's just that this wasn't what the book seemed to promise or what I had anticipated. Sure, from time to time, Kinsley backs off from the personal to make more general observations -- most particularly in the final segment, when he discourses on the question of building up a reputation that will endure post mortem -- but those segments also tend to be shorter and to feel more perfunctory.
Ultimately, I came away from these feeling unmoved and unenlightened. There's nothing terribly fresh here, and while Kinsley's writing is crisp and vivid, without insights that make me sit up and take notice, I ended up shrugging my shoulders. There's an odd and quirky proposal to solve the country's fiscal problems bolted on to the end that comes out of nowhere, but aside from that....
If you're looking for something to read about mortality, for my money you're better off reading "Nothing to Be Frightened Of" by Julian Barnes. Beautiful prose, and real thought has gone into the ideas it contains. This is obviously equally personal, but far more disjointed.
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