ENCOUNTERS WITH AGING is a fascinating book examining the contrasting cultural constructions of aging and menopause in Japan and North America. Lock is a medical anthropologist who has done extensive research on attitudes and practices surrounding menopause among women in Japan and North America. She juxtaposes these women's experiences with a penetrating look at the broader medical and social discourses surrounding aging in the two regions. The book serves as a revealing critique of western medical practices surrounding women and aging.

I have very successfully used the book in teaching in both gender studies and medical anthropology classes. It is long yet accessible. The introductory chapter, "Scientific Discourse and Aging Women," is brilliant, witty and cutting--and could be used as a stand-alone piece--challenging readers to rethink western medical constructions of aging and women in a new, feminist light. The book complements well another of California's recent books on aging, women, the body and menopause--WHITE SARIS AND SWEET MANGOES: AGING, GENDER AND BODY IN NORTH INDIA.

There are still people in this world who listen: anthropologists. After reading less than humble authors who are certain they have most if not all the answers, I found this volume to be a delight. The fifteen articles in this book, each concerning individuals and groups in a particular cultural/historical setting, address the phenomenon of "social suffering". While the dominant American cultural construct holds that virtually every experience is individual, these authors establish that life is, after all, social and individual, and much suffering (another unpopular topic) is created, experienced and coped with socially. The first chapter, by Arthur Kleinman and Joan Kleinman, is alone worth the price of the book. After discussing how we Americans present to ourselves and react to news of dire suffering, usually discretly presented without context and with no way to respond, the authors write, "The American cultural rhetoric ... is changing from the language of caring to the language of efficiency and cost ...." Other essays address Mao's China, modern India, Nazi medicine, terror in Sri Lanka and torture. Paul Farmer's essay regarding the lives of two of Haiti's destitute is particularly unnerving. Some of the essays require close reading, but they are well worth the effort. This is a book that will leave you with a broader and deeper perspective.