Customer Reviews

If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It is filled with stories about interesting people who have lived incredible lives Neenah Ellis is a journalist who spent an unforgettable year travelling the country listening to the stories of people who have reached the age of 100 and beyond for a National Public Radio series. I truly believe now that the secret to a long happy life is to stay active either mentally or physically. The people in this book can all attest to that. This book profiles educators like Margaret Rawson who published a book about dyslexia and her work in the field at the age of 96. Abraham Goldstein is a dedicated professor who has taught law for 70 years. I loved the story of Anna Wilmot who stayed active by paddling a rowboat and going skinny dipping.

I also enjoyed the story of Ruth Ellis who was the oldest black lesbian. She was an accomplished public speaker and gay activist who made 100 appearances in a 1 year speaking on college campuses and gay functions all over the country. Ruth Ellis achievements have not gone unnoticed as a film has been made about her life. The story of Louisiana Hines is interesting because her grandfather was a slave. She can vividly recall how blacks were lynched for preaching about equality in the early years of the 20th century.

Roy Stamper became a successful horse trainer He also developed a love for preaching despite having only 4 years of formal education. Roy Stamper proved that it is never too late to fall in love, because he got married at the age of 101.

Sadie and Gilbert Hill were married for an amazing 81 years. The secret to their long marriage can be summed up in one word together. They did everything together from cooking to shopping to dancing. This couple even worked together as farm caretakers milking cows and herding cattle. I loved the story of Harry Shapiro whose life has been prolonged and enriched by his passion to paint. If I live to be 100 is a wonderful book.

Based on the title, I was truly expecting to read the "wisdom of the ages." Unfortunately, other than a few snippets and a couple of generalizations, the majority of this book is centered on the frustrations of obtaining the knowledge being sought and the process by which the author was able to acquire some patience with the elderly. To the author's credit, she mentions that this is how the book will transpire early on. To the author's discredit, she never changed the title appropriately. Kudos to the power of marketing and a lesson for those considering this title, "Read the reviews."

When I saw the title of the book I was very excited. The whole concept of the book was so appealing that I could hardly wait to get started. After reading the first chapter the excitement faded. The concept of recording the views and experiences of centenarians is wonderful and worth the 3 stars that I give this book, however the author missed a great opportunity to really explore the ideas and views of this very small group of our population. Her lack of patience and willingness to give the time to allow these people to communicate and record thier life experiences is sad. As a reader I felt very cheated that she did not fulfill her obligation she gave in the title of the book. Who should really feel cheated is the centenarians who gave up precious time to an author who valued her own time more. She writes on more than one occasion that the time she spends with some of these people is wasted time. She doesn't really elaborate on things that myself as a reader really care about. For example what do you think about the world today and where it is headed. What is the secret to being married 50 plus years? What advice do you have for teenagers, baby boomers, women, men, etc? What is the most positive change in the world in your lifetime? What is the most negative change in the world in your lifetime? These are just a few examples the questions I would have liked answered. All we can hope for is that a more UNSELFISH author will take this idea and run with it.

The subtitle of the book is quite deceptive. I forced myself to finish this book b/c I was halfway through it when I realized that there are no lessons from centurians. The book mostly consists of her battling with her own interviewing habits and really offers nothing in the way of lessons told by the interviewees. As the other reviewer mentioned, it has no substance. Quite a disappointment for such a good idea!

Ellis produced a program for National Public Radio for which she interviewed people who were a hundred years old or older. She interviewed a wide variety including Margaret Rawson (a world-renowned expert on dyslexia), Ruth Ellis (the oldest living lesbian), Sadie and Gilbert Hill (married for over eighty years). At first, Ellis is focussed on the historical aspects of their lives, but soon finds herself on a personal journey of her own, where she connects to them as individuals alive in the world and begins to see how looking forward, not backward, is a secret to longevity, as is living in the here and now. More of a story of Ellis herself than the centenarians she met, "If I Live to Be 100" is a surprisingly luminous memoir that charms the reader and opens the mind to what it means to be really alive.

When I met Neenah must have been the morning after she had camped under Anna's window. I too was awake early the August morning, waiting for Anna to come home from her morning row. It was the day after one of her many birthday parties, and I wanted to tell her how nice she looked on the tv. I hopped on my boat just as Anna was nearing the shore and cruised my way over there before she started up her hill.
Anna introduced me to Neenah, saying that Neenah was going to share my dear Anna with the rest of the world. And after reading this book, I'm here to tell you that Neenah has truly captured the real Anna.
I'll admit I originally only bought this book to read about my friend, but I found myself drawn to all of the Centenarians and the stories they had to share. In the mean time I learned things about Anna that I never knew. I never knew Anna's husband Fred. He had died before I was born! Anna was my favorite babysitter (when she was 70 something, and I was in grade school).
She is still in fine health all though her hearing is going and her knees are bad. She often calls me up to find out how my love life is going. Anna has promised to dance at my wedding, and I'm going to hold her to that. But she has told me that she's getting tired so I better get to it!!!

And just remember this....
Don't eat the fish!!!

Addition: Aug 2005... Anna has just celebrated her 107th birthday, and is still going strong.

Addition: May 2009... Anna has lost her battle with old age... She passed away on Mothers Day at age 110. She shall be remembered.

Many people probably think it would be wonderful to live to be 100. That's a nice long span of years and perhaps one could do everything we would like to do. If we're healthy enough. If we're still interested in doing those things. The older we get, however, the less think we can count on being able.

In her introduction to this book, Neenah Ellis says she always believed she would live to be 100. Given the opportunity to interview centenarians for the radio, she jumped at it. Learning from the people who know what it's like to be that old and how to get there, should be a wonderful experience. And maybe it was.

What Ellis says she did learn was how to listen. At first, she tried to force the conversations. That seems to have rarely worked. She wasn't getting what she wanted from the people. How could she do that? In the end, what she often got wasn't what she expected, but something even more valuable. She gained friends, wisdom perhaps, and a view of the world through older eyes. What the reader gets is much less.

It is interesting to hear about what these people have seen in the century of life. But that's a rare commodity. It's interesting to see how some are still clear-headed and even physically capable, but not all are. People who have lived so long should be honored and some of her inteviewees are. Most are taken care of by people who love them, and that's nice to read. However, there is no cohesiveness in this narrative. And no apparent purpose. The stories are badly linked and there's little understandable transition between one story and another. I fear the reader will actually learn very little, either about this group of people or about him or herself. And they will learn even less about what Ellis was trying to achieve in writing this book.

When I started reading this book I hoped it would be about centenarians and offer clues into their miraculous longevity, but instead the author's digressions are frustrating. Half way through the book and we realized much of the book is about the author, her marriage, and even a visit to her psychotherapist (!).0 Many paragraphs are like reading an on-the-road travelogue as the author describes scenery and environs to and from her interviews.

Do we care? How is it relevenat to the secrets of centenarians?

Important questions are virtually ignored: what's their spirituality/relligious beliefs? diet? excercise? etc. Instead the author asks innane and irrelevant questions such as "What was the dust bowl like?" as if there are not already written accounts found in any library? Maybe the author doesn't mind wasting time figuring she too will to 100, but I sure can't say that about myself. I don't like my time wasted.

A well written documentary, but very long on fluff and sentimentality and short in substance.

Neenah Ellis, a producer for National Public Radio, has said that she wants to live to be one hundred. So with that mentality, she decides to make a radio series idolizing centenarians, or individuals over one hundred years of age. She spends an incredible year interviewing 15 centenarians, learning about their past, their present and their future. Ellis travels to New England to meet spunky, 103 year old Anna Wilmot on the day of her birthday. She finds that Anna still has her drivers license, rows her boat daily, and even goes skinny-dipping occasionally when fishermen are not around. R.L. Stamper is another centenarian with a unique story. At age one hundred and three, R.L. feels lonely and longs for the care and comfort of a woman. Being a very Christian man, he believes that the end is near and wants to get married before his time is up. Love eventually finds him in the form of an eighty year old, Louisiana woman. These are just two of the fifteen stories that are in If I Live To Be 100 by Neenah Ellis.

The stories in this book are a treat to read. They come alive with the dialog of the unique individuals. We can feel the emotion Neenah feels as she falls into the moments. My only disregard was for the title. Picking up the book and reading the title, I expected to be learning about "how" to live to be one hundred. After reading a few chapters, I learned that this was not the author's intent. She mainly told the centenarians' stories, mostly of their pasts, as much as they could remember. She wrote a lot about her frustration of obtaining a "good" story from the individuals, and how old age affects this process. To the authors' credit, the stories were well written.