Customer Reviews

Jeanne Calment: From Van Gogh's Time to Ours, 122 Extraordinary Years

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This out-of-print biography presents Jeanne Calment as a fiesty, headstrong supercentenarian who leaps over the boundaries of our human lifespan, at least as defined by verifiable statistics. The four authors, all scientists, unveil here a multi-year and cooly scientific study and, along the way, probe a grandame's physiology, wit and charm with alacrity and grace. That is, the book never stoops to treating Calment as an oddity or specimen. Through such delicate and respectful treatment, the soul of a remarkable woman emerges: a society grand dame who lives a structured, even sheltered, existence, and through a fiery wit and tomboy spirit stubbornly refuses to die.

There aren't many nuggets of advice on diet and lifestyle, though, so anyone seeking an exhaustive tome on the subject of longevity should look elsewhere. And although conservative in outlook, she's generally apolitical; she seems unmoved, at best, by any feminist indentity even though she rides, shoots and smokes like the boys. The emphasis here's on Calment: who she is in her essence...what makes her tick. The psychological profile as presented through multiple transcripts is both subtle and sophisticated and will, I think, interest the applied expert.

The book's an inspiration. Still, at times I found the smallish biography too sketchy and wished the authors would've provided more. The employment of Calment's own dialogue, however repetitive, does provide glimpses into a woman whose quiet melancholy, having lost everyone she loves the most, remains untrammeled by her joyous and yes indomitable spirit. She's a master of zingers and one-liners, too.

A worthwhile read if you can procure it.

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