Review of \u27How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying,\u27 by Karla Erickson

How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying takes the reader on an engaging journey through the terrain of aging in America, with an emphasis on how our ideas about aging itself have changed the way we view death in the United States and even the way we actually die. This book has an authenticity to it, as Erickson admits that her own experience with aging and death compelled her to enter this world and study from the perspective of insiders, those who care for older adults and the actual elders themselves. Based on hundreds of hours of participant observation and in-depth interviews with eldercare workers and older adults themselves, Erickson critiques our societal response to what she calls the longevity dividend. Although life expectancy has clearly increased, she suggests that we have not made good use of the extra time. The experience of living longer has many consequences for caregiving, quality of life, long-term care, and at the end, how we approach death