Book Review and Giveaway: Lastingness by Nicholas Delbanco

on January 28, 2011

** this giveaway is closed **

Synopsis: America grows older yet stays focused on its young. Whatever hill we try to climb, we're "over" it by fifty and should that hill involve entertainment or athletics we're finished long before. But if younger is better, it doesn't appear that youngest is best: we want our teachers, doctors, generals, and presidents to have reached a certain age. In context after context and contest after contest, we're more than a little conflicted about elders of the tribe; when is it right to honor them, and when to say "step aside"?

In LASTINGNESS, Nicholas Delbanco, one of America's most celebrated men of letters, profiles great geniuses in the fields of visual art, literature, and music-Monet, Verdi, O'Keeffe, Yeats, among others - searching for the answers to why some artists' work diminishes with age, while others' reaches its peak. Both an intellectual inquiry into the essence of aging and creativity and a personal journey of discovery, this is a brilliant exploration of what determines what one needs to do to keep the habits of creation and achievement alive.

You can browse the book on Hachette's Book Browse site!

About the Author: Nicholas Delbanco's writing has earned him widespread recognition and many literary honors, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships. He served as founding director of the Bennington Writing Workshops and, since 1985, has directed the MFA Writing Program at the University of Michigan, where he also administers the prestigious Hopwood Awards. Nicholas Delbanco makes his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife and their two daughters.

Review: This is an interesting book in that Delbanco shows us how those with a creative edge, be it writing, music, painting or sculpting, have a tendency toward old age. Is it their craft and art that keeps them youn, that keeps their brains active? The author culls anecdotes from his own personal life to support his thesis. if you love the arts, you will love hearing the inside stories of the many artists and writers the author knew, and brings to life in this book.

In many ways, the books is like Culture 101- if you pick the artists and writers from the book to study, you would have a great cross-work representative of the best of the arts! This is a very quick read and goes a long way to supporting the theory that if we keep our minds open to creativity, it can help us have longevity.

Giveaway:

TWO winners will win their own copies of Lastingness!

Entries:

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so I can contact you, if you win!
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

USA / Canada

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Contest will end on February 11th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on February 12th, and emailed. As soon as winner's info is received, I will mail their book to them the following week!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: i was sent this book, free of charge, for review purposes, by Hachette Publishing. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about the book either.

Hatchette Books is sponsoring this giveaway! Two readers will win their own copy of Lastingness!!

USA and Canada Only. No PO Boxes