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Endnotes: An Intimate Look at the End of Life

Ruth E. Ray

Paper, 208 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14461-2
$24.50 / £17.00

June, 2008
Cloth, 208 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14460-5
$74.50 / £51.50


"A riveting reminder of what happens when a feminist refigures the politics of sex, age and death." — Margaretta Jolly, Ageing & Society

"A wonderful insider’s view of the needs and internal struggles one faces during the last leg of life’s journey." — Elaine T. Jurkowski, Journal of Gerontological Social Work

"Ruth E. Ray was in her forties, teaching writing in a nursing home, when she and one of the residents fell in love. This is their love story, and it is not only unexpected but charming and credible. Paul is a marvelous literary creation and a wonderful person: funny, gentle, open, loving, self-aware. Ray comes across as sensitive to others, careful of herself, unbiased, and unashamed-excellent qualities for a writer and writing-teacher who wanted to become a feminist gerontologist and a passionate advocate for rethinking our relation to older people. This memoir is sui generis. Ray has written something as startling and unflinching as good fiction can be." — Margaret Morganroth Gullette, author of Aged by Culture and the prize-winning Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife

"This work is part of a well-established narrative tradition in gerontology. It effectively uses the devices of that tradition to illustrate broad themes related to aging and end-of-life care and will raise the emotional awareness and empathy of its readers." — Amanda Barusch, Department of Social Work and Community Development, University of Otago, New Zealand, author of Love Stories of Later Life: A Narrative Approach to Understanding Romance

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About the Author

Ruth E. Ray teaches writing, composition theory, and women's studies at Wayne State University. She serves on the board of trustees of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operates a Center for Creative Aging, and she is co-founder of communityengagement@wayne.edu, which supports community-based research and teaching, including projects on creative aging and intergenerational learning. She is the author of Beyond Nostalgia: Aging and Life-Story Writing and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Aging Studies.

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