Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Living and Dying at Murray Manor is a classic text that documentshow the work of everyday life in a nursing home is accomplished. Jaber F. Gubriumspent several months at a nursing home as a participant-observer, involved inactivities ranging from performing menial toileting work to serving as agerontologist at staff meetings. The result is not a survey of statistics aboutnursing homes but an examination of the social organization of care in a single homethe author calls Murray Manor. Gubrium's research reveals how staff, clientele, relatives, visiting physicians, and funeral directors negotiated their respectiveroles, needs, and goals- and how, in the end, Murray Manor emerged as an organizedsocial entity.