Late-life love: a memoir

Description

"'Tender, unsparing, poignant. . . . [A] love story that braids together intimate self-revelation with a rich meditation on the literature of aging.'-- Stephen Greenblatt. On Susan Gubar's seventieth birthday, she receives a beautiful ring from her husband, a gift that startles her into an appreciation of their luck. As she contemplates their sustaining relationship, Susan considers how older lovers differ from their youthful counterparts--and from ageist stereotypes. When her husband encounters age-related disabilities, Susan procrastinates over moving from their burdensome house in the country to a more manageable town apartment by searching out literature on the longevity of desire by authors from Ovid and Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and Marilynne Robinson. During subsequent months of care-giving, her own ongoing cancer treatments, and apartment-hunting, Susan studies the obstacles many older couples overcome and marvels at the passion that buoys her own relationship. A memoir proving that love and desire have no expiration date, Late-Life Love is a resounding retort to negative valuations of old age and a celebration of second chances"--;Thanksgiving -- A second chance -- Signs of decline -- Falling in love -- The trace -- Props -- Alterations -- Lovesickness -- What's love got to do with it? -- Late-life lechery -- Sunsets -- Cupidity -- Wrinkled in time -- Give and take -- Tequila mockingbird -- Wintering -- Silver threads among the gold -- Recounting the ways -- Enormous changes at the last minute -- Chrisnukkah -- Later. Thanksgiving -- A second chance -- Signs of decline -- Falling in love -- The trace -- Props -- Alterations -- Lovesickness -- What's love got to do with it? -- Late-life lechery -- Sunsets -- Cupidity -- Wrinkled in time -- Give and take -- Tequila mockingbird -- Wintering -- Silver threads among the gold -- Recounting the ways -- Enormous changes at the last minute -- Chrisnukkah -- Later.