cover image Seasons of Life: Our Dramatic Journey from Birth to Death

Seasons of Life: Our Dramatic Journey from Birth to Death

John Kotre. Little Brown and Company, $24.95 (421pp) ISBN 978-0-316-50252-8

This hefty and detailed volume reprises in print a PBS-TV and radio series about nature's control of people's lives. Gathering data from studies of human behavior, Kotre, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and journalist Hall report that biological, social and psychological ``clocks'' dictate similar changes in all persons, no matter how little else they have in common. It is, however, the respondents to the research team who color and energize the story. The interviewees include members of an extended family, living harmoniously on their long-established farm, and a 13-year-old single mother bringing up her baby with the help of her own mother. The widely different individuals met here conform to the laws governing physical, social and psychological growth in very personal ways. Photos. (Oct.)