At last, this is your story. You'll recognize yourself, your friends, and your loves. You'll see how to use each life crisis as an opportunity for creative change -- to grow to your full potential. Gail Sheehy's brilliant road map of adult life shows the inevitable personality and sexual changes we go through in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. The Trying 20s -- The safety of home left behind, we begin trying on life's uniforms and possible partners in search of the perfect fit. The Catch 30s -- illusions shaken, it's time to make, break, or deepen life commitments. The Forlorn 40s -- Dangerous years when the dreams of youth demand reassessment, men and women switch characteristics, sexual panic is common, but the greatest opportunity for self-discovery awaits. The Refreshed (or Resigned) 50s -- Best of life for those who let go old roles and find a renewal of purpose.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
At last, this is your story. You'll recognize yourself, your friends, and your loves. You'll see how to use each life crisis as an opportunity for creative change -- to grow to your full potential. Gail Sheehy's brilliant road map of adult life shows the inevitable personality and sexual changes we go through in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. The Trying 20s -- The safety of home left behind, we begin trying on life's uniforms and possible partners in search of the perfect fit. The Catch 30s -- illusions shaken, it's time to make, break, or deepen life commitments. The Forlorn 40s -- Dangerous years when the dreams of youth demand reassessment, men and women switch characteristics, sexual panic is common, but the greatest opportunity for self-discovery awaits. The Refreshed (or Resigned) 50s -- Best of life for those who let go old roles and find a renewal of purpose.
From the Inside Flap
At last, this is your story. You'll recognize yourself, your friends, and your loves. You'll see how to use each life crisis as an opportunity for creative change -- to grow to your full potential. Gail Sheehy's brilliant road map of adult life shows the inevitable personality and sexual changes we go through in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. The Trying 20s -- The safety of home left behind, we begin trying on life's uniforms and possible partners in search of the perfect fit. The Catch 30s -- illusions shaken, it's time to make, break, or deepen life commitments. The Forlorn 40s -- Dangerous years when the dreams of youth demand reassessment, men and women switch characteristics, sexual panic is common, but the greatest opportunity for self-discovery awaits. The Refreshed (or Resigned) 50s -- Best of life for those who let go old roles and find a renewal of purpose.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
At first I thought this book might not be relevant to me, some 20 years after it was written in a different country. Whilst some of the stereotypical behaviours and social "norms" are different, it is easy to see the translation of the insights to today and in a different country. And while the USA of the 70s is gone this book provided me with a better understanding of some of the (largely unconscious) behaviour of friends, parents and siblings, behaviours which I had not identified or simply taken for granted are now a little easier to fathom. As I read about each life stage I could identify it with those I know and this enabled me to forgive, empathise with and accept a lot which had previously left me hurt and baffled.
Although fairly young (35) I can already see some of the patterns at play which Gail describes. I don't care if it's not original work or if the lifetstyles are different and the social pressures altered, this book is still very applicable to those who can objectively view themselves and those around them.
This book looks at middle and upper middle class university graduates (called "college" graduates in the US) with primarily professional vocations in accounting, law, medicine etc (stangely little mention of engineers!). Also, I suspect the people are largely private school educated. Whilst people in other circustances might be under different pressures, I have seen similar crises and cycles in a wide range of people. A perceptive reader would learn from this book, nomatter their circumstances.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Jose Solera
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
After trying to figure out why the disenchantment with work as I hit 40, this book has explained it! Although some of the data used is out of date, the findings are still very valid.
I recommend it to those trying to figure out how to navigate through life.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I first read this book at the ancient age of 27, and it then had little relevency to my budding young life, my passages had been so few...now, at the age of 48, it all looks like a roadmap of my life, much of what Sheehy wrote now makes sense, now comes into focus, now jumps off the page at me...my suggestion is that the book needs to be updated, rewritten from the perspective of one who has actually made the "Passages"...still, the book is remarkable...either Sheehy is the most intuitive person who ever lived, or did research unknown at the time to man/woman...all in all, I find it a book best read once you've been there and done that...otherwise, it means little...unfortunately, I think, it is a work only appreciated in your own personal rearview mirror...reading it as a young man or woman might unduly influence how one's life plays out...but I have every intention of reading it again, and perhaps again...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
OLDIE BUT A GOODIE
I READ THIS BOOK ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO. IT PUT A WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE OF UNDERSTANDING FOR BETTER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN US. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Kathleen Bever
2.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't keep my attention
I read a lot. In my lifetime, this is the only book that I actually just put down between 1/2-3/4 of the way through. Read more
Published 20 months ago by BlackBelt
5.0 out of 5 stars
interesting for the stereotypicals
this is an old read, and i'm glad to see how much we have evolved. e.r.a. and station wagons are a thing of the passed but where would we be with out them?? Read more
Published on December 24, 2008 by Kimberly M. Thornton
5.0 out of 5 stars
an awakening
I just finished reading this book. It has brought much clarity to the events and motivators in my life -- thru my 20's, 30's and now 40's. Read more
Published on June 26, 2008 by Julianne D. Steinmetz
4.0 out of 5 stars
Predictably crazy
We are all familiar with Freud's psychosexual stages of development which end in with the pinnacle of adulthood, but during the Twentieth Century psychologists came to see that... Read more
Published on September 19, 2007 by Raymond Mathiesen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Predictably crazy
We are all familiar with Freud's psychosexual stages of development which end in with the pinnacle of adulthood, but during the Twentieth Century psychologists came to see that... Read more
Published on September 17, 2007 by Raymond Mathiesen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Predictably crazy
We are all familiar with Freud's psychosexual stages of development which end in with the pinnacle of adulthood, but during the Twentieth Century psychologists came to see that... Read more
Published on September 17, 2007 by Raymond Mathiesen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disgruntled Need Not Apply
Yuppie / Yippie, what's the difference? For starters, Yippies find fault with Yuppies, but rarely do you ever find it the other way around. Read more
Published on January 6, 2005 by A Writer
1.0 out of 5 stars
Relevant, but only if...
you're in your mid-50s, White, wealthy, live in posh suburbs on the coast, spent the last 30 years climbing (steadily) up the corporate ladder to VP status or are counting your... Read more
Published on March 20, 2004
4.0 out of 5 stars
extremely well detailed......a great work
if the number of times you say 'that makes sense' is anything to go by, then this book definitely rates high up there with me. though about 30-years old now (i'm guessing! Read more
Published on August 17, 2003
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