A review by aegagrus
Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles, and Regret by Saul Levmore, Martha C. Nussbaum

3.75

 Aging Thoughtfully is both academically substantial and emotionally sincere. Acknowledging their own experiences with age and aging, the authors are candid but not self-indulgent. Their project’s greatest strength is that it takes aging seriously both as a lived experience and as a social phenomenon. Nussbaum and Levmore see the interconnectedness of intimate narratives and socioeconomic policy, making their approach to aging rich and holistic. Their writing is clear and immediate, betraying deep intellectual curiosity and ambition. Their enthusiasm is evident. Their points of reference are eclectic, but not for the sake of being so. 
 
Aging Thoughtfully is at its best when Nussbaum and Levmore are at odds not just methodologically but dispositionally. Strong disagreements surface only occasionally, but these are the moments when their writing really shines (for instance, over mandatory retirement laws or the culture of affluent retirement communities). Too often, though, the finished book doesn’t take as much advantage of its epistolary structure as it could have. Each chapter consists of two essays, the latter of which is intended to be a response to the former. Instead of truly responding to one-another, though, Nussbaum and Levmore typically treat the chapter’s broad theme as an individual prompt, only orthogonally gesturing towards one-another’s arguments. There’s nothing especially wrong with writing a book in this way. Still, given the compelling nature of their more direct engagements, it feels like a missed opportunity. The relative lack of a responsive structure also occasionally makes the essays slightly bloated and unwieldy – although if the book is being used as reference material, this problem is ameliorated by the inclusion of a useful and comprehensive index. 
 
Aging Thoughtfully is not a perfect book, and requires some degree of patience, but it is also a deeply important and deeply rewarding read. 
 
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