Suddenly Sixty and Other Shocks of Later Life Author: Judith Viorst | Language: English | ISBN:
B000FC0V1Q | Format: EPUB
Suddenly Sixty and Other Shocks of Later Life Description
From the bestselling author of
Forever Fifty comes a new collection of poems that tickle, console, and offer the pleasure of instant recognition -- the perfect book for any woman anywhere in the vicinity of sixty.
Judith Viorst's "decade" books of verse -- including
It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty, How Did I Get to Be Forty, and
Forever Fifty -- have delighted millions of readers worldwide who relish her wit, warmth, and wisdom. Now here she is with
Suddenly Sixty, a funny and touching book that speaks directly to the sixty-ish woman, inviting her to laugh about, sigh over, and come to hopeful terms with the complex issues of this decade of life.
Among the poems in this charmingly illustrated collection are those exploring the joys -- and strains -- of children and grandchildren, and the intimacy of old friends who've "known each other so long/We knew each other back when we were virgins." There are poems that tip their hat to mortality, wrestle with a husband's retirement -- "He's coming with me when I shop at the supermarket/So I won't have to shop alone. I like alone." -- and acknowledge the fact that at this stage of life we'd "give up a night of wild rapture with Denzel Washington for a nice report on my next bone density test." Offering plenty of laughs, a few tears, and cover-to-cover truths, these are poems for everyone who would "rather say never say die than enough is enough." Every woman who has reached this decade will -- rueful and smiling -- find herself in the pages of this book.
- File Size: 93 KB
- Print Length: 80 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 068486763X
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (February 21, 2001)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000FC0V1Q
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #492,804 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Ms. Viorst has become more outspoken in these poems than in her earlier "decade" works. I think you'll like the change. "It still will be impossible to persuade my husband when lost to stop the goddamn car, and ask for directions." Concerning her husband's retirement, "And guess who's the hobby he chose?" In talking about her children and grandchildren, she exults that her grandchild prefers her for cuddling to her son. You'll never quite think about life the same way after you read "1963 -- Niagara, 1999 -- Viagra."
On the other hand, she's hanging in there as a woman. "I've painted blue nail polish on my toes . . . ." "I will still buy bikini underwear." "I don't intend to stop showing a little cleavage." Yet, ". . . it's hard to be frisky over sixty." "L's for libido -- what's happened to sex?"
There are also the inevitable losses. "How am I going to walk in this world without talking to my friend about eyeliner and the meaning of the universe?" She has some very strong feelings about the bad things that should happen to the man who leaves his wife of 42 years for a younger woman.
One of the best sequences comes in a series of poems on the subject of "A Brief History of Marriage" that begins with "a life lived -- at least for a while -- in paradise." In "To Be Continued" we learn that ". . . sometimes we still get a glimpse of paradise."
My favorite poem on aging was "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep." The poem is a long list of all the things that can and usually do disturb slumber. If none of these occur, she says, "I might -- I just actually might -- do a little sleeping.
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