Taking Retirement

In this diary of retirement, acclaimed writing teacher Carl Klaus guides us through a passage that we all must take, one that forces us to confront the deeply disorienting issues of identity and mortality as well as the pleasures of creating a whole new life.'A veteran writer's ruminations about a key transition point in life that has gotten surprisingly little literary attention: retirement. . . . The quiet testimony of a man whose ongoing writing, editing, reading, gardening, traveling and ceaseless quest for self-knowledge make him much less retired than many people half his age.' --Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's GhostCarl Klaus, author of My Vegetable Love and Weathering Winter, is founder of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City.