Late-life love

By Susan Gubar

Subjects: Love in literature, Teachers, biography, Biography, Women college teachers--united states--biography, Older women, Women, united states, biography, Psychology / developmental / adulthood & aging, Gubar, susan , 1944-, Older women--united states--biography, PSYCHOLOGY / Developmental / Adulthood & Aging, LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading, Self-help / aging, Love in old age, Older couples, 305.26/20973, College teachers, Spouses, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, Literary criticism / books & reading, Older people, New York Times reviewed, Love, SELF-HELP / Aging, Women college teachers, Hq1064.u5 g83 2019, Psychology, Biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

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"--