Review by New York Times Review
RIGHT NOW, I'm a bit embarrassed to be an American. Not usually. But now. If I see a tourist on the street looking lost, it's all I can do not to blurt, "I'm sorry about what our president said today and will say tomorrow," along with directions to the No. 6 train. I must have a lot of company. How else to explain the staggering pile of self-help books where Americans are offered the path to a better life via the rituals and outlook of other countries? Last year there were lessons in happiness and well-being, via hygee from Denmark. And this year? Japan is teaching us to seize the day (humbly). Sweden is showing us how to find balance and simplify our lives. And France is showing us, well, everything else. Naturellement. Just because they invented Camembert and guilt-free sex, they think they're soooo perfect. A FRENCHWOMAN'S GUIDE TO SEX AFTER SIXTY (Greystone, paper, $17.95), by the psychotherapist Marie de Hennezel, immediately catches your attention because the cover shows a woman of a certain age glancing coquettishly over the bedsheets. But that age isn't 40. It's perhaps 75. So this isn't the American version of old; it's the French version, which is to say: old. And that's what makes this volume uniquely French: It's deeply un-American in its realism. Aches and pains, medications that reduce libido, a diminution of hormones that mean friction is tougher on our naughty bits and of course the occasional urge to cover all the mirrors in the house: Aging ain't pretty, Hennezel admits. Yet for many of us, Eros lives, and Eros wants its due. What's called for, then, is a revolution in the way we look at sexuality: a deemphasis on orgasms in favor of kissing and caressing, more solo play to connect with our erotic selves and "making affection" as an alternative to making love. Feeling good through exercise and a healthy diet is paramount; looking younger through plastic surgery is mentioned not at all. Reading the stories of septuagenarians and octogenarians who are finding love or intimacy or sometimes just sex, one is reminded that the very French concept of joie de vivre - a sense of joy that comes from curiosity and playfulness, from looking outward instead of inward - is its own form of Botox. This joie is very much at the heart of Jamie Cat Callan's lively PARISIAN CHARM SCHOOL: French Secrets for Cultivating Love, Joy and That Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi (TarcherPerigee, $19). Maybe "Parisian Charm School" seems so thorough because Callan, who has written several previous books on various aspects of French life, is an American; she approaches her subject with anthropological rigor. Here that subject is French charm, which is some combination of intellectual curiosity, spontaneity, style and a soupçon of reserve. Charm, she points out, can't be Googled; it must be cultivated. Yet, at its heart, it's a tangle of contradictions. As a fashion consultant Callan interviewed put it, "Never be too feminine, too girlie. Never be too complicated. Too obvious. Never look like you're trying. But you must try!" Being French seems kind of exhausting. Still, we clumsy Americans can worship at this shrine and maybe pick up a few tricks. Who, after all, doesn't want to be like the woman in this line Callan quotes from Colette: "When she raises her eyelids, it's as if she were taking offall her clothes." Perhaps Sweden was a little jealous of all the lifestylegiving attention its Danish neighbor received, so this year brings us Linnea Dunne's LAGOM: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living (Running Press, $16). Loosely translated, lagom means "not too little, not too much, but just enough," making Sweden the Goldilocks of nations, one that earned an article on the website of the World Economic Forum called "Why Sweden Beats Other Countries at Just About Everything." The reason, it seems, is that Sweden makes the concept of "the greater good" practically into a religion. You start with free education and universal health care and end with great pastry (and the regular coffee breaks - fika - to enjoy it). Fairness and moderation are basic cultural values: "Lagom is accepting an invitation to spend the weekend at a friend's house, but bringing your own bedsheets because it's fair to share the burden of laundry. . . . It's wearing bright-red lipstick, but leaving the rest of your makeup perfectly understated." There's a reason Gianni Versace founded his luxury fashion empire in Italy and H & M was born in Sweden: "There's this inherent celebrating of frugality in Sweden. We like affordable clothes because it's a bit vulgar to splash out." If anything sums up the gestalt of this book - and Sweden - it's this: Swedes are rated among the world's top 10 happiest people, but not the happiest. That would be excessive. The aim isn't ecstasy but "sustainable happiness," the sort of equilibrium that's achieved through small moments of calm and bliss in your everyday routine. So, to live the lagomway, invite your friends round for fika, spend time in nature, give away items that don't add to your pleasure in life - and, most important, help a neighbor. The primacy of the common good extends to everything in Sweden, including shuffling offthis mortal coil. Reading THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING: How to Free Yourself and Your Family From a Lifetime of Clutter (Scribner, $18.99), I couldn't help thinking of my own parents, who were mild hoarders. When they were in their 80s and I meekly suggested that maybe they should get their home in order, my father's response was: "Why? Soon it'll be your problem." Margareta Magnusson is writing for people with families like mine - and maybe yours. Americans are just too much, she gently suggests. Swedes embrace consideration and minimalism, and the practice of "death cleaning" (which can start in your 30s - why wait?) embodies those values. "Let me help make your loved ones' memories of you nice - instead of awful," she says, and proceeds to do just that in this short, practical guide to getting rid of stuff. You categorize, normally going from large objects to small; you give things away or sell them, particularly if you have a family you know is going to bicker. And you never, ever start with photos or other items of great sentiment because you're likely to get stuck. And oh, how right Magnusson is. After my parents passed away, my own death cleaning consisted of looking at old photos, then immediately giving up - taking everything they owned and putting it into a massive storage unit that has sucked up money for seven years. I may have to reread her book. In Japanese, iki means "to live" and gai means "reason" - in other words, the reason to live and how you define it. Ken Mogi begins AWAKENING YOUR IKIGAI: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day (The Experiment, $16.95) with a story meant to illustrate the importance of this concept to the Japanese. He describes a famed sushi chef whose Tokyo restaurant is visited by President Barack Obama during a state visit and who is told by the president that his sushi was the best he had ever eaten. No big deal. "Ikigai resides in the realm of small things," Mogi explains. "The morning air, the cup of coffee, the ray of sunshine, the massaging of octopus meat and the American president's praise are on equal footing." Not really! Can I skip No. 4? Mogi, a celebrity neuroscientist and broadcaster who has written more than 100 books, describes the five pillars of the ikigai way of life: "starting small," "releasing yourself," "harmony and sustainability," "the joy of small things" and "being in the here and now" (what we might call "mindfulness"). And he demonstrates how some of the rituals most important to Japanese culture, from the tea ceremony to sumo wrestling, are based on these tenets. I admit that certain principles he espouses utterly baffled this Westerner, particularly the notion that in Japan finding purpose and joy in work, even work that requires great individuality and creativity, comes from a sublimation of the ego. He cites the example of the great anime artist Hayao Miyazaki, whose work is so repetitive and painstaking. Wait, if we all know who he is, how is he subsuming his ego? In work, Mochi explains, you have to be like a child, because "a child has no definite idea of the past or the future." Seriously? Tell that to a 5-year-old screaming, "When will we get there?" in the back seat of a car because "there" involves ice cream. I'm not sure if I could live in Japan for more than a week, what with all the appreciating of teeny porcelain objects and self-abnegation, but "Awakening Your Ikigai" is really quite a delightful look at sometimes mystifying Japanese traditions. (Spoiler alert: There's a lot more to sumo wrestling than chubby dudes with man buns and diapers.) I can't resist noting that in 2009, Mogi was charged with violation of Japanese tax laws for failing to report several million dollars in income. See? I guess America does have something to teach the citizens of other nations. JUDITH NEWMAN'S "To Siri With Love: A Mother, Her Autistic Son and the Kindness of Machines" was published in August. Her column appears every eight weeks.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [February 11, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
As a Swedish woman between the ages of eighty and one hundred, Magnusson has some definite ideas about decluttering. She refers to it as death cleaning (i.e., getting rid of things when you think the time is coming closer for you to leave the planet). Why should your children have to make decisions that you didn't want to make? Why should they be left with a deluge of possessions? The author suggests breaking your possessions into categories and then attacking these categories one at a time. (She says clothing is the easiest, so start there.) Her methods are pretty basic: make one pile to keep and one pile to get rid of. Put notes on the discards showing where they should go. What makes this book worthwhile isn't the sorting tips. It's Magnusson's humorous common sense. She rightly reminds readers that it takes time to downsize and that putting it off won't make it go away. And that hanging around with young people can be fun. At least they don't talk about hearing aids and canes.--Smith, Candace Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Those interested in Scandinavian living may be intrigued by this end-of-life guide. The popularity of Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing also provides a ready audience. Magnusson, a visual artist who has moved many times within her native country of Sweden and abroad, speaks from ample experience. After explaining the concepts of Swedish death cleaning (döstägning) for family members, the author describes paring down from a large house to a modest apartment after her husband died. Striking a balance of gentle encouragement, philosophical musing, and pragmatism, her recommendations are wholly practical and warmly convey her hope for a positive outcome. VERDICT The title alone, with the juxtaposition of "gentle art" and "death," is eye-catching. Invoking the Swedish theme of lagom ("just the right amount"), this book should appeal to readers who have faced the challenge of sorting through their loved ones' or their own belongings at various life transitions.-Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
