Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew D. Blechman
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 6587
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0871139812
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.3809759
EAN: 9780871139818
ASIN: 0871139812
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
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Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
When his next-door neighbors in a quaint New England town suddenly pick up and move to a gated retirement community in Florida, Andrew D. Blechman is astonished by their stories. Larger than Manhattan, with a golf course for every day of the month, two downtowns, its own newspaper, radio, and TV stations, The Villages is a city of nearly one hundred thousand (and growing), missing only one thing: children. More than twelve million people will soon live in these communities, and to get to the bottom of the trend, Blechman delves into life in the senior utopia. He offers a hilarious first-hand report on all its peculiarities, from ersatz nostalgia and golf-cart mania to manufactured history and the residents’ surprisingly active sex life, and introduces us to dozens of outrageous characters. Leisureville is also a serious look at a major and underreported trend, only to get bigger as the baby boomers retire. Blechman travels to Arizona to show what has happened after decades of segregation. He investigates the government of these “instant” cities, attends a builder’s conference, speaks with housing experts, and examines the implications of millions of Americans dropping out of society and closing the gates on kids.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Judgemental and Selfish July 5, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This "young" author thinks the country's social system will become totally unravelled, if seniors move to an adult communtiy. It's just the opposite for many seniors and their families. I live part time in The Villages and see more of my children and grandchildren than ever. Children are welcome there, only not to live permanetly. The kids love it!!
He thinks seniors are selfish for not staying in their communities and continuing to pay for schools and other things that really no longer apply to them, even though many must live on much less money, after retirement. He also spent WAY too much time and energy on a small minority of singles, who were into Drugs, Sex and Rock n'Roll. Very unrealistic for the majority.
The parts about the developer and the politics, were interesting, but it's a 30 yr old viewpoint.
Seniors WERE young once and have some understanding about raising a family, what that entales, but 30 yr olds have NEVER been seniors.
Don't bother to buy it or give as a gift. It's basically insulting to retired persons.
 Liked Leisureville July 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Informative and interesting book for those considering the pros and cons of active adult retirement communities.
 Entertaining and Informative But Also Preachy and Judgmental July 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had mixed feelings about this book, so I'm not surprised to see strongly
positive and negative reviews. On the one hand, it's an eye-opening and
fascinating introduction to retirement communities. Readers who don't know
how they began or just how vast and ambitious they can be will get a sense of
it here. For that alone, it's worth reading.
On the other hand, the author's disapproving view of these communities
undercuts his reporting and makes some of it unreliable. He states
forthrightly in Chapter One that he doesn't understand how seemingly bright
people could be drawn to something as undeniably kitschy as The Villages
(the community he focuses on). He never tries very hard to achieve
enlightenment on this key point.
At times, his tone is snarky. In numerous instances, when he asks a
question of inhabitants of The Villages, their fatuous response begins with
the word "Gosh." Is it really likely that so many different people spoke
that way? Or is that just how he heard them all? And are the activities at
The Villages mainly just line-dancing and bingo? Among the 75,000 residents
and hundreds of activity groups, he couldn't find one dealing with, say,
books or art?
He did manage to devote a section to the community's lone transsexual,
probably just to highlight the oddness of it amidst the kitsch. Fun reading
but not exactly balanced reporting.
More substantively, he seems to regard the senior citizens at these
childless, school-free, low-tax retirement communities as violators of a
social compact. They've abandoned the full-service communities up North
that sustained them throughout their lives, he feels, not fulfilling their
duty to stick around and support the next generation spiritually and
financially. He makes this point throughout the book, with a somewhat
preachy cumulative effect.
His argument, though not without some merit, is flawed. These retirees
have, after all, paid taxes their whole lives. And many have their life
savings wrapped up in their homes. If they want to sell and retire after a
life of hard work, where can they live on the proceeds? A tiny apartment
somewhere? Their quality of life might be quite poor if they tried to
survive on social security and savings in many towns and cities. In most
cases they are not going to be taken in by family to live surrounded by
adoring grandchildren. Suddenly The Villages look a little better.
Blechman is weirdly oblivious to the hardships and needs of the elderly,
particularly widows and widowers. He presents an airbrushed, romanticized
picture of "real life" in his New England community, all the while sneering
at the tacky communal activities of senior citizens in The Villages.
This is a good but flawed book. With a little less bias and a slightly less
hectoring tone, it could have been a much better one.
 Leisureville July 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Certainly changed our minds about these types of retirements. Think we will just stick to apartments
very, very interesting June 24, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Couldn't put it down, its a real interesting read. What a horrible place the Villages sounds like, certainly not the place for myself or any of my friends who are concerned the least bit about the environment or the wholesale 'subdivisioning' of Florida. Anyone the slightest bit 'green', artistic, liberal, or even slightly cultural this is surely the place to stay far, far away from.
Of course the author interviewed only a small portion of the many thousands who live there but the general impression is of a hedonistic bunch of deliberately ignorant middle agers (what a boring bunch). I have had my fill of that kind of self centered baloney where I live now and it doesn't surprise me that the Villages residents would want the homogenized environment...they can keep what they have already ruined but I sure hope at some point the state drops in and stops the wretched developer from doing much more damage.
That said -I have a distant relative who sold their house moved down there and within the year was back where they had come from seriously regretting the move. I can see why.
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