Narrating Midlife

Narrating Midlife: Crisis, Transition, and Transformation is rooted in a discussion about why it is important to address the midlife years in ways that challenge and interrogate the myths that surround this phase of life. Although readers are free to construct their own meaning after reading each narrative, they are encouraged to attend to the ways in which each narrative reveals how the author grapples with their particular issues communicatively. More important, readers are invited to see the power of narrative re-framing as authors seek to understand, interpret and “live” midlife change(s) in ways that are empowering and life affirming. In this book, contributors spin compelling and meaningful narratives about change at midlife. The empty nest, the surprise discovery of cancer, re-defining one's life at midlife and re-imagining long term commitment after divorce are just some of the topics explored in this book. Auto-ethnographically crafted, the narratives presented throughout the book aim to show how managing and living through change at midlife is very much a communicative endeavor.

Narrating Midlife: Crisis, Transition, and Transformation is a welcome and vital addition to the literature on interpersonal, family, health, and organizational communication. The contributors of the stories in the collection navigate their way through the confusion, challenges, and competing demands they experience as they move through midlife. This is a soulful collection of deeply personal, evocative, and vulnerable autoethnographic stories that will make readers more mindful of the necessity and difficulties of dealing effectively with the expected and the unforeseen.  , Lori West Peterson and Christine Kiesinger have edited a collection of deeply personal narratives, inviting readers to join the authors as they open windows to an array of experiences of midlife. Of particular benefit to those wishing to find nuance in distinctions, is the organization of the book by those stories of lives “on track,” and others, “off the rails,” allowing readers and students of aging and life stages to reflect on the subtle ways we measure our lives while both celebrating and struggling with the circumstances we face.

Lori West Peterson is associate professor of communication at St. Edward’s University.Christine Elizabeth Kiesinger is lead facilitator and curriculum developer for Leadership Wilkes-Barre.