Still Dreaming: Film Review

Released on DVD April 19, 2015.

PBS will air this documentary starting April 14, 2018. Check your local listings for show times. 

Shakespeare's plays are rich with meaning, which allows people from every historical era to emphasize different aspects in each play.

Hamlet performed in 1800 looks very different from Hamlet performed in 2000.

But Shakespeare's plays not only change when performed in various eras of time. They change when performed by actors of various ages.

Viewers have the opportunity to witness this phenomenon, thanks to Filmmakers Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson who facilitate a unique production of A Midsummer's Night Dream with the making of their documentary Still Dreaming (2014).

The documentary is set in The Lillian Booth Actors Home, just outside of Manhattan. The residents are older adults who worked as Broadway performers--actors, singers, dancers, musicians, etc.

Ben Steinfield and Noah Brody are thirtysomething co-directors who work with residents of the assisted living campus of the home. Over the course of the documentary, we see them cast about a dozen residents. They spend six weeks rehearsing before perform this romantic comedy for staff, fellow residents, and family members.

Even though the leads are usually played by twentysomethings, the play's themes of identity, illusion vs. reality, desire, and autonomy resonate with the mature actors.

Hag-Seed: Book Review

Published October 6, 2016. 

Reading Hag-Seed (2016) by Margaret Atwood is a 2-for-1 treat since her novel is a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Her novel is part of the Hogarth Project, a series of novels retelling Shakespeare plays as part of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's works.

This novel's protagonist is Felix, a long-time director of a community theater in Canada.

Because Felix is in late midlife, the novel addresses themes such as working through relationships with younger professionals, confronting memories of past decades, and trying to shape one's own legacy.

Published the year Atwood turned 77, the novel contains a richness in depicting midlife and late life that novels with mature characters often lack.

The start of the novel begins with Felix foolishly handing over a lot of the control of financing and politicking to an assistant director, Tony, who uses that power to usurp Felix, who believed he could maintain power by focusing only on the creative aspects of theater.

During his "exile" from the theater, Felix must decide how to rebuild his career and decide how to address Tony's treachery.

The Luckiest Old Woman Around: An Elder Tale

Photo by Paul Downey.

Once long ago in Northumbria near the village of Hedley, there lived an old woman.

She earned a living by doing chores and errands for the local women.  They would pay her with some fire wood here, some tea, sugar, and flour there.

It wasn't much, but she made do.

This post is part of a series on elder tales. An elder tale features an older adult who relies on strength of character and wisdom to solve problems. This contrasts with tales about younger heroes who often rely on riches, magic or a mentor to help them solve problems.  

One afternoon she was headed home and spotted a black iron pot by the side of the road. She hadn't seen anyone else on the road for a while, so how would she find the owner?

She thought to herself, "Perhaps it has been cast aside on purpose. Maybe it has a hole in it?  Still, I could make some use of it as a flower pot."

Even though it was a smallish sort of pot, the old woman discovered it was quite heavy. She opened the lid and saw, to her great astonishment, that it was full of gold coins.

"Oh, I am the luckiest old woman around. But how will I carry this home?"

Tinkers: Book Review

Published January 1, 2009

Paul Harding won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2010 for his novel Tinkers, a story about three generations of men from New England.

We meet George Crosby, a clock repair man.  From the start, the novel focuses on time, memory, and perspective.  George is suffering from delirium as a mature man in his last six weeks of life.  This leads to some shifting perceptions between past and present, reality and fantasy.

This is a book that I read slowly, wanting to live in the moments that he creates on the page.

Readers are next introduced to George's father, a salesman. Every fall and spring, Howard stocked up a wagon full of goods and traveled through back roads with his mule, selling to impoverished country people and making very little profit.

Howard is a poet at heart, but between the demands of providing for his family and the difficulty of dealing with his epilepsy, he lives a far less elegant life.

The Simple Grass Cutter: An Elder Tale

Photo by Nishanth Jois.

Most fairy tales cast young people as the protagonist.

There are a handful of tales that depict an older adult as the story's hero.

This post is part of a series on elder tales.  The main character in an elder tale is an older adult who is the hero or focus of the story. Often the conflict is resolved because of their hard-won wisdom instead of some magical intervention--even if that wisdom is symbolized by a fantastical event or object. 

The protagonist is a poor laborer whose riches are contained in his character.  By late life, he is content, so he uses his resources to bless the rising generation.

The Sense of an Ending: Book Review

Published 4 August 2011

Our minds can play tricks on us.

When we are trying to recall events from decades prior, our version of events often conflicts with others' versions.

Add emotion to the mix, and the memories contrast more sharply.

Honestly, I don't think it's possible to create an objective version of the past. Everyone brings their bias to the retelling.

The protagonist in The Sense of an Ending (2011) by Julian Barnes spends much of the novel trying to recall a series of events from his youth, only to become less and less sure of himself.

The first time I tried to read The Sense of an Ending, I recoiled from the characters I first met: a group of pretentious college boys.

Initially, I didn't get past the first chapter.

Once I learned that the first part primarily functions as an object to be examined and disputed in the second part, I was much more willing to pay attention to this group of self-important young men.

Subsequently, I read the novel in two sittings. (It's 163 pages in the paperback version I read, pictured above.)

The first part describes a series of events that occurred in the 1960s, as told by Tony Webster--one of the arrogant and immature college students.

The second part describes Tony Webster some forty years later. He has received a letter about one of his college friends.  This motivates Tony to contact people from his past.  In part through conversation, in part through self-reflection, Tony tries to piece together what happened then and how everyone's lives played out.

Death Comes to All: An Elder Tale

Image by Arallyn.

Halloween is almost upon us, so I'm choosing to tell an eerie elder tale.

This post is part of a series on elder tales.  The main character in an elder tale is an older adult who is the hero or focus of the story. Often the conflict is resolved because of their hard-won wisdom instead of some magical intervention--even if that wisdom is symbolized by a fantastical event or object. 

Death Comes to All 

Once upon a time, there was an older woman who lived far north among people who hunted in order to survive the long winters.

For decades, she helped her family and her tribe survive. However, she lived so many winters that she could do very little but eat small portions, observe others, and sleep on her pallet in the corner of the family lodge.

As the village moved deeper through a long, cold winter, she noticed that she was receiving fewer and fewer visitors as well as less and less food. She grew thinner and weaker. She observed that fewer fish were found in the freezing rivers, fewer caribou were found in the snowy woods, and fewer seals were found near the shores of the sea.

Olive Kitteridge: Book Review

Published 25 March 2008.

Olive Kitteridge is greater than the sum of its parts.

For this reason, I struggle to fully explain my response to this intriguing novel, presented as a collection of 13 interconnected short stories.

I can gesture to some of the novel's strengths: the structure is ornate yet easy to read, the setting of Crosby, Maine well supports many of the themes, the characters are at once odd and recognizable, and the treatment of aging is complex.

Notably, Olive Kitteridge (2008) by Elizabeth Strout was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Also, HBO aired its award-winning mini-series, Olive Kitteridge, based on the novel and starring Frances McDormand as the title character.

It took me seven years to finally pick up a copy of the book so that I could answer the question "Why all the fuss?" for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

The Memory of Old Jack: Book Review

Published 1 January 1974.

The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry is one work of fiction of many set in the same town with recurring characters.
 
Even though Berry was only 39 years old at the time that he published The Memory of Old Jack in 1974,  the author does a remarkable job depicting the challenges and opportunities of advanced age.

(Note: It's Wendell Berry's 81st birthday today!) 

The novel features the life and perspective of Jack Beecham as it unfolds in a single day in 1952.

Born in 1860, Jack has a lot of memories at 92 of Port William, Kentucky, a place he's lived his entire life.  At his age, he's experiencing a little dementia, but I believe this is more a literary device for Berry than a valid medial diagnosis.

Jack's advanced age and his tendency to be easily confused means that almost every person, place or thing sends him into a reverie.  This is how one dawn-to-dusk day can trigger a life time of memories to fill an entire novel.

Berry's work is grounded in a love and appreciation of nature and family farming, so it's no wonder than much of the book is a love letter to the land.  Old Jack spends the bulk of his outdoors, so his memories are filled with images of working the land and observing nature in great detail.

Our Souls at Night: Book Review

Published 26 May 2015

I want to say something smart about this book, but I'm probably going to be emotional instead.

Kent Haruf's last book, Our Souls at Night (2015) conveys a lot of depth and complexity with a stylistically light touch.  I'm in awe.  His prose is sparse, yet it conveys a lot of heft.

This 179 page novella is set in the fictional town Holt, Colorado--well outside of Denver on the eastern plains area of the state.  All of his works of fiction are set in the same town.

However, I was absolutely entranced by this quiet romance novel--if that's what you call it. It's unclear because the two main characters participate in a relationship that's a bit unconventional.

The novel opens with widow Addie Moore walking over to visit Louis Waters in order to make a proposition. They are both older adults who have lost a spouse.

They've known each other for  years but haven't really spoken directly except perhaps to exchange pleasantries. Nevertheless, Addie is full sick of the empty spot in the bed next to her, and she has selected Louis as the man to solve that problem: "I wonder if you would come and sleep in the night with me. And talk."

Novels about Ripeness in Late Life

Photo by Nico Aguilera.

Baltimore Sun ran an article about the increased presence of novels focused on late life. The article introduced me to a new term,

Vollendungsroman,

which was coined in 1992 by literary critic Constance Rook as a companion to the more familiar term Bildungsroman.

Bildungsroman refers to stories where the protagonist is coming of age, growing, developing or "building" towards adulthood.

One of the most classic examples is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A Vollendungsroman. . . is a novel of winding down or completion. It focuses on the challenges presented in late life, chiefly to "discover the tension between affirmation and regret." (Rook qtd. in footnote 49 of Rita Caviagoli's Women of a Certain Age, on p. 203)