Excerpt from:
The New York Times
The New Old Age – Caring and Coping

A Novel Take on Assisted Living
By PAULA SPAN

“Breaking Out of Bedlam”

I can’t say with assurance that Leslie Larson’s “Breaking Out of Bedlam” is the first novel set in an assisted living facility, so I’ll just say it’s the first one I’ve read, and that it’s a kick.

The fun comes from meeting protagonist Cora Sledge, an 82-year-old in a perpetual rage because her children have moved her into a place called The Palisades. Ornery Cora hardly qualifies as a model resident: she smokes though she has emphysema; she purposely takes so many pills that her days pass in a haze; she’s a casual bigot; she’s rude. Overweight and underactive, barely able to walk down the hall without wheezing, Cora won’t be one of those elegant silverhairs shown strolling the grounds in an assisted living brochure.

But reading her “journals,” as she reawakens, finds a friend and a paramour, and plots her escape, is a hoot. (I’ll overlook the fact that The Palisades, drawn broadly for comic effect, sounds more like a nursing home than an assisted living residence.) I was less interested in Ms. Larson’s plot twists than in Cora’s scathing observations about aging, families, assisted living and more.

A sample (the italics are Cora’s own, and so is one four-letter word I’ve had to bleep): I am sick to death of pastels, elastic waists, and baggy knits. Why is it that, once you turn sixty, you’re supposed to wear the same colors as babies? Pale pink andpowder blue, dingy yellow and that pukey lavender that turns my stomach. You see it all over here: old ladies walking around like wedding mints or Jordan almonds, milquetoast pastels that drive you to the depths of depression.

I want some patterns. Flowers. Stripes or triangles or polka dots. Bold prints. And some bright colors. Scarlet, peacock blue, royal purple. Fuschia, poppy, watermelon, chartreuse! But oh no. When you’re fat, you’re supposed to wear dark colors. Flat black, navy blue, and [bleep] brown. That’s about it. Otherwise, somebody might notice you.

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

………………………….

I am definitely buying this book!!

Sylvia

Sylvia Taylor-Stein

Executive Director

Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,