Aging: An Apprenticeship

Nan Narboe's 56 thoughtfully selected essays offer an intimate and lyrical account of aging through the decades.

Authors Judy Blume, Andrew McCarthy, Gloria Steinem, Donald Hall, David Shields, Ursula K. Le Guin and others draw from their own experiences, describing a specific decade's losses and gains to form a complex and unflinching portrait of the years from nearing fifty to ninety and beyond.

In six sections, these detail-rich essays paint an accessible picture of nearing 50, the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, the 90s and beyond with equal parts humor and insight.

Drawing on seven decades worth of experiences, the selected essays offer a clear-eyed composition of narratives, each narrative as important as the one before it. In Paul Casey's "Katie Couric Is No Friend of Mine," a colonoscopy, not a red convertible, marks his initiation into mid-life. Germaine Koh, in "Thoughts on Aging," is the oldest player in her roller derby league, confounded by her changing body. Ursula K. Le Guin's "Dogs, Cats, and Dancers: Thoughts about Beauty" meditates on human self-consciousness--it is aging humans who find their bodies surprising. And in "Death," Donald Hall rejects euphemisms: he's not going to "pass away;" he's going to die.

ISBN-13: 9780692753996

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Red Notebook Press

Publication Date: 04-04-2017

Pages: 298

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

Nan Narboe worked as a psychotherapist and trainer for forty years, and has since transitioned into consulting. Based in Portland, Oregon, she currently specializes in working with entrepreneurs and with people deciding what to do with the rest of their lives. The interplay between individual traits, chronological age, and developmental stage has been a lifelong fascination, the best part of which has been watching her daughter grow up. Nan co-founded L'Auberge, a five-course restaurant that presaged the local food movement, and Cascade Valley School, a democratic school inspired by the Sudbury model. She launched her writing apprenticeship at forty by attending the feminist workshop, Flight of the Mind, and sold her first piece a mere twenty-eight years later.

Table of Contents

Informed Aging Nan Narboe
Nearing 50
Middles Jane Hamilton
Thoughts on Aging Germaine Koh
Mouth Pablo Tanguay
Aging Paulina Porizkova
Passing for Young-ish Christian M. Lyons
The Freaking Autumn of My Life Julie Gray
Repose John Griswold
On Interruptions Sarah Ruhl
Lessness Lance Olsen
The 50s
Katie Couric Is No Friend of Mine Paul Casey
Women Over Fifty-The Invisible Generation Hilary Mantel
Our Terrible, Beautiful Existence David Shields
Ten Ways to Look at Boob Jobs R. A. Rycraft
Baby Boom Andrew McCarthy
A Temporary Insanity Gail Wells
Passing Fifty Mark Greene
Beyond Chagrin David Bradley
Like Landing a Man on the Moon Ralph Robert Moore
Grandmother Kyoko Mori
Hark Achy Obejas
Falling Through Space Ellen Gilchrist
The 60s
This Vast Life Susan Moon
Activiaism Kate Clinton
Pause Mary Ruefle
These Vanishing Hills Steven Faulkner
The Psychological Tasks of Old Age Victoria Howard
On Throwing Out My Journals Jane Bernstein
Swimming At Adamsville Rec Andrea Canaan
It Was, as It Always Has Been, a Choice Harold Knight
Where Have All the Old Ladies Gone? Molly Giles
Learning to Live Forward Allan Gurganus
Endings Judy Blume
Ripening David "Lucky" Goff
The Crowd Inside Me Gary Soto
Slaying St. George Susan Troccolo
All Grown Up at Last Barbara Neely
The 70s
The Changing Contract Charles Handy
A Country for Old Men Edward Hoagland
Into the Seventies Gloria Steinem
Dogs, Cats, and Dancers: Thoughts About Beauty Ursula K. Le Guin
That Face in My Bathroom Mirror Gordon Weaver
On Not Wanting Things Jane Miller
Losing Ground Gail Godwin
After Aging Walter Cummins
The 80s
The Overtone Years William Zinsser
Somewhere Near the End Diana Athill
Our Last Drive Together Frederick Buechner
One Little Mosquito Bite Later Morley Torgov
Being With Someone Dying Ram Dass
Old Age Penelope Lively
Death Donald Hall
Nearing 90 William Maxwell
The 90s and beyond
Astonishment Jan Slepian
The View from Ninety Doris Grumbach
The Impossibility of Dying Erving Polster
Epilogue Elizabeth Bugental Show More