Using It While Losing It

These engaging autobiographical stories present an insightful and humorous account of the epiphanies Irving and Suzanne Sarnoff experienced in confronting the twin traumas of mandatory retirement and aging. Speaking in a collective voice, they vividly reveal their emotional response to the troubling features of this stage of life, highlighting the impact on each of them and their relationship. Their quirky candor invites empathy with the disagreements and foibles they had to overcome before sifting out kernels of wisdom from the inevitable predicaments they faced. Beginning at the peak of their co-career with a hilarious account of their appearance on the David Letterman Show, the authors go on to portray their resistance to being identified as senior citizens and their depressive reactions over the loss of occupational roles and routines. Then they illustrate the stress involved in home ownership and remodeling an eighteenth century farmhouse; the anxieties of physical, mental, and sexual decline; their futile fantasies of regaining public recognition; and their macabre antics in selecting their own gravesite. Enjoyable and inspiring, the stories in Using It While Losing It convey a hopeful message. By mobilizing the will to laugh at themselves, the Sarnoffs avoided stagnation in self-pitying despair, sustained their intimacy, and continued to cooperate in new creative work.