Fiction about old age
Posted by: imani on: March 1, 2008
All the discussion about Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel has me wondering about fiction that dealt with old age, in general. Are there any other notable examples? I don’t mean the sort where the guy/gal is on death’s bed about to croak and they wheeze out the great adventure that was his/her life, or we get to read their journal, or some such. Fiction that focuses as much, if not primarily, on the character’s experience as an elderly in comparison to any flashbacks on the old days.
I know that the movie Away From Her was based on an Alice Munro short story but I wouldn’t mind some novel recommendations.
16 Responses to "Fiction about old age"
March 2, 2008 at 3:26 am
Try Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead – it’s stunning, and is the best example I can think of…
March 2, 2008 at 10:19 am
Muriel Spark’s Memento Mori comes to mind, and Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn. Both are novels that focus on a group of elderly people and the issues that beset them. The Pym is rather touchingly redemptive.
March 2, 2008 at 11:24 am
Thanks, Logophile and litlove! Interesting that, so far, only female authors are popping up. And now I’ll have an excuse to read Gilead since nothing said about it before got me excited.
March 2, 2008 at 4:43 pm
oh it is an interesting question. there was once a short-story read on the radio about an “old woman” (i think she was 60-something). if i remember correctly, it was told from the pov of her daughter.
i was so offended that i dug up an email address for the author and wrote her that the way she had portrayed this mother: feeble, zany, frightened, etc. did not only a disservice to older people, but it was just plain off base.
she never answered.
i was so sorry to read that you were ill, dear. i’m delighted you’re rallying, and hope you’ll be patient with yourself.
March 2, 2008 at 5:33 pm
You might try Elizabeth Taylor’s Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont–it reminded me of The Stone Angel, though there are no flashbacks really and the characters are vastly different. It was one of my favorite reads last year. I also have heard good things about All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, but I’ve yet to read it.
March 2, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Thomas Bernhard’s “Old Masters”
Lots of Beckett – e.g., “Krapp’s Last Tape” and “Malone Dies”
Faulkner – one of the stories in “Go Down, Moses”
Eudora Welty – “A Worn Path”
What’s-his-name, “The Old Man and the Sea”
Balzac – “Pere Goriot” and “Cousin Pons”
Cooper – “The Prairie”
Nabokov – “Signs and Symbols”
Every other recent Phillip Roth novel? Kidding, sort of.
This is a good question – pretty tricky. Not as common as one might think. Ask for the inverse – novels about children – and you’d never know where to stop.
March 2, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger is another — it is made up of flashbacks, but with lots of scenes with the elderly main character.
March 3, 2008 at 1:38 am
Off the top of my head, Philip Roth – “Exit Ghost”
Something by Vita Sackville-West, “All Passion Spent” – not sure if that’s what you’re looking for.
May Sarton wrote a few journals on her latter years, as well as some novels with aging/dying protagonists. “As We Are Now” is one of them.
Will drop more titles if I can recall.
March 3, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thank you, everyone, for all the recommendations! How funny that for the most part the suggestions were all by female authors.
Amateur Reader “Whats-his-name”? 
lotusgreen I am trying to be! But I do have a lot to do, so I just eat a lot of fruits and meat and hope that does the job :p
Dorothy ooo, I like Penelope Lively, so I look forward to that one.
March 3, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Who wrote the Sun Also Rises one of the greatest books ever!? That bearded guy whose name you do not deign to type? (again .)
March 3, 2008 at 3:21 pm
There. That wasn’t so bad, was it? I’ve tried to read Old Man and the Sea twice but lost the mood for it…twice. Should try again later this year maybe.
March 5, 2008 at 8:15 am
More men: What about King Lear?
Kingsley Amis’s The Old Devils.
Ed Begley’s About Schmidt (lovely movie)
Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet
March 1, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Good question. I wonder this myself.