Longtime Tampanians know the name Clendinen; James Clendinen, the legendary Tampa Tribune editor (and later editorial board chairman), served the paper for 50 years. His son Dudley's name may be familiar, too — he is a former St. Petersburg Times and New York Times columnist, and co-author of a major work of gay history, Out for Good. And the story Clendinen tells in A Place Called Canterbury is one that, if it isn't familiar to you now, may eventually become so — the drama of taking care of an elderly parent. After the death of his father, Clendinen's mother moved into Canterbury Tower, a lifecare facility on Bayshore Boulevard. Intrigued by the "special kind of soap opera" he observed there, Dudley decided with a journalist's (and son's) curiosity that the best way to understand Canterbury fully would be to move in. So, with administrators' permission, he did just that, spending a total of 400 days and nights there. His book conveys with clarity and grace the complex (and sometimes comic) interactions among elderly residents, their caregivers and their families in an era he calls "The New Old Age," a time when people are living longer than ever before. A bonus for Tampanians, longstanding or otherwise: his unsentimental but loving portrait of the city itself and of those residents (including his charming, indomitable mother) who saw it change from one century to the next. Clendinen reads from and signs copies of his book at several area locations: Sun., May 4 (time TBA), Canterbury Tower, 3501 Bayshore Blvd., Tampa; Mon., May 5, 6 p.m. Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia Ave., Tampa; Fri., May 9, 7 p.m., Borders Books & Music, 2683 Gulf to Bay Blvd., Clearwater; and Sat., May 10, 2 p.m., Haslam's, 2025 Central Ave., St. Petersburg.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2008.