Seniors of Wisconsin

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith (Thorndike Press Large Print Senior Lifestyles Series)

Description

“IT’S THE UNGUARDED VOICES HE PRESENTS THAT STAY WITH YOU. . . . Terkel’s interviews may not allay fears about death. But reading them certainly encourages life while we have it.”
–The New York Times

Whether it’s Working or The Great War, the legendary oral histories of Studs Terkel have offered indispensable insights into all areas of American life. Now, at eighty-eight, the Pulitzer Prize winner creates his most important work on a subject few can comfortably discuss: death.

Here, in the voices of people both esteemed and unknown, are wise words, meaningful memories, and compassionate predictions about the experience of life’s end–and what may come after. A grad student explains how her two-year coma convinced her of the existence of reincarnation . . . A Hiroshima survivor reconciles her painful memories with the stoicism of her Japanese culture . . . Actress Uta Hagan expresses how her art is her religion and will be her legacy . . . Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler relives his World War II ordeal, after a torpedo left him in a lifeboat among injured and dying comrades . . . An AIDS counselor reveals why healthy gay men may require the most crucial psychological help . . . and a retired firefighter admits he “never felt so alive” as when he was doing his dangerous job.

From the sheer physical facts to the emotional realities to spiritual speculations, all aspects of death are openly expressed in this wonderful work, the stirring culmination of Studs Terkel’s brilliant career.

Mustering more spunk and battery juice than his overworked tape recorder, 88-year-old Studs Terkel cranks out another eclectic treasury of oral histories in Will the Circle Be Unbroken? This time, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Good War takes on death, a universal experience that solicits plenty of speculation, caution, and emotion from his 60-plus interviewees. Regular folks--ranging from the deeply religious to the deeply atheistic--share their life stories and their hopes or suspicions about the afterlife. Some are well-known, such as author Kurt Vonnegut, radio journalist Ira Glass, and folksinger Doc Watson (who, incidentally, appears in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's classic bluegrass album Will the Circle Be Unbroken). Others, including parents, artists, medics, and clergymen, share equally compelling stories about losing family members, patients, and friends; personal encounters with heavenly voices; and apparitions. Terkel lies low throughout the book; his voice is only heard in the short intros to each speaker's story and in the chuckle-inducing introduction, which tells the story of an asthmatic boy--Studs, of course--who ironically outlives his family and dear wife Ida. The result is a vibrant tapestry of life's full process, sure to stir compassion and inspiration in adults at any point on the curve. --Liane Thomas

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-12-03
Summary: "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

This book is very different from any I have ever encountered. I believe it is extremely well-conceived. Terkel's concept of interviewing people on a specific subject, in this case the very important human issues of faith in God and perception of death, has been very enriching to me.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-06-02
Summary: "From the Inside Jacket"

At the age of 88, Studs Terkel has turned to the ultimate human experience, that of death and the possibility of life afterward. Death is the one experience we all share but cannot know. In "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" a wide range of people address that final experience and its impact on the way we live. In talking about the ultimate and unknowable culmination of our lives, they give voice to their deepest beliefs and hopes, reflecting on the lives they have led and what still lies before them. For the first time Terkel addresses the whole realm of religious belief and of expectations of an afterlife, including reincarnation, and discovers an extraordinary range and complexity of experience and of belief.

As in "Working" and "Coming of Age", Studs Terkel tackles an issue bound up with all of our lives, yet rarely discussed on its own terms. From a Hiroshima survivor to an AIDS caseworker, from a death-row parolee to a woman who emerged from a two-year coma, these interviewees find an eloquence and grace in dealing with a topic many of us have yet to discuss openly and freely.

Terkel also interviews the vast array of people who confront death in their everyday lives, whether as police, firefighters, emergency health workers, doctors, or nurses. Many of the most moving interviews deal with AIDS, and how the disease has devastated whole communities and forced people to face death at the young ages we associate with centuries past.

In a stunning capstone to his extraordinary career, Terkel introduces to us the variety of our reactions to life's ultimate experience.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-09-05
Summary: "You'll remember the stories long after you close the book"

I normally read quick paperbacks you can finish at the beach...but I picked this up after my father died. I didn't feel like calling an entourage of friends; I just wanted to hear from someone who understood. This book fulfilled the job of whatever therapy I needed...and more. Many of the stories have stayed with me and opened me up to a new level of empathy. I always thought undertakers were a little creepy. But I was very moved when I read about the guy who took such pride in his work, trying to make the people look as they did in life. It meant so much when the families said their loved ones looked like they had remembered.. The first story reminded me of my own innocence when the little boy asked the hippie in the park why he was crying when his mother died because she was so old. I was relieved when my mom told me as a little girl that she would be so old when she died I wouldn't care...it wasn't true, but it took away my anxiety. And who couldn't draw on the strength of Emmet Till's mother as she buried her son? Studs Terkel has a wonderful way of allowing you to share in the meaningful experiences of others. I guess that's what people are seeking when they flip channels from one reality show to the next, but with his oral histories, you get the real thing...no put-ons. I am on to my third book by him and he has become one of my favorite authors.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2006-07-18
Summary: "In a Word GREAT!"

Stud's Terkel is one of my favorite narative authors. This work is yet another masterpiece by the master himself. The views of different people on death, life, faith, etc. is intriguing and enlightening. It is good to know that the population still has soul in one form or another. Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2006-04-09
Summary: "A wide range of personal beliefs and experiences intimately expressed."

This book consists of a series of chapters that are each an interview with a person about their beliefs surrounding death. A wide range of people from different: religions, no religion, ethnicities, cultures, and occupations. The author does not try to impose his own views, but simply allows the people who are being interviewed to express theirs. One of the most moving books I've ever read. You will probably want to keep a box of kleenex close by. It will definitely make you reflect upon your own life and those close to you.