A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home

March 11, 2013
Halpern’s (Can’t Remember What I Forgot) love of life and openness to its infinite possibilities shine through in this powerful and engaging account of her time working in a Vermont nursing home. Her efforts to brighten the residents’ lives were aided by a remarkable Labradoodle named Pransky—“one singular, faithful, charitable, loving, and sometimes prudent dog.” Confounding both her expectations and the reader’s, Halpern was surprised to find that happiness was “the dominant emotion for both Pransky and me,” at the nursing home where they work together as a therapy-dog team. From the outset, the book’s humanity is evident, as seen in a description of an encounter with a legless man Halpern had never seen before and would never see again. Instead of simply passing by the man, who embodied her worst fears about nursing homes, Halpern, prodded by her dog, engaged him in conversation and got out of her comfort zone. Time and again, anecdotes bolster her contention that in places where “life is in the balance,” it is possible to get to the essentials about human nature. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell Management.

April 1, 2013
Reflections on a rest home for the elderly. When faced with the beginnings of empty-nest syndrome, Halpern (I Can't Remember What I Forgot, 2008, etc.) decided to invest time in others as a way to fill her day. She and her dog, Pransky, became a certified human-dog therapy team, working at the local nursing home. She expected to meet and "learn something about old people, and about the therapeutic value of animals in a medical setting, and about myself in that setting, which was alien and not a little scary." With Pransky at her side acting as an icebreaker, Halpern experienced the seven virtues of life: "love, hope, faith, prudence, justice, fortitude [and] restraint." Witty and compassionate, the author introduces readers to the lives of many of the residents, providing insight into the last stages of a person's life. These people were farmers, counselors, teachers, museum curators, and they "had lives--rich, rewarding, interesting, challenging, complicated lives." The residents showed Halpern that death is not something to be feared but accepted with dignity despite failing mental and physical health. Over time, the author realized that "hanging out...[was] as satisfying as anything else we could have been doing between ten and noon on Tuesdays, and, most of the time, more so." Through her enlightening observations of this particular nursing home, readers will take away the knowledge that we are each given one life and we had best not squander how we live it. Endearing thoughts on aging and companionship.

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Starred review from May 1, 2013
Halpern realized that Pransky, part yellow Lab and part poodle, was so smart and energetic that she was bored in spite of the pleasures of her leash-free Vermont life. As her daughter left for college, Halpern herself feels the need for a new adventure. So she plunges into the rigorous training required for Pransky to become a certified therapy dog. When they begin visiting a nursing home each week, Pransky proves to be a dog of phenomenal empathy, affection, and patience. An immersion writerHalpern participated in neurological studies for her last book, Can't Remember What I Forgot (2008)she is skilled in the art of combining vivid in-the-moment storytelling with thoughtful analysis. She warmly and incisively portrays the people they meet and contemplates the vagaries of memory, the inevitability of loss, and persevering joy. A deeply ethical thinker with a bright sense of humor, Halpern uses the seven virtues as organizing principles, subtly shaping her engrossing account to reveal fresh and provocative aspects of restraint, prudence, faith, fortitude, hope, love, and charity as she addresses the complexities of infirmity, dementia, and death; animal intelligence; and how doing good benefits all involved. The result is a profoundly affecting and edifying chronicle brimming with practical wisdom and things that were so unexpected they seemed miraculous. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)