Grow Old Along with Me...

By Margaret Green, Library Committee

“How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?" --Satchel Paige, Professional Baseball Pitcher, Hall of Fame

​Are we all as old as we feel? I have to laugh at that, because my number would be a large one!  Fiction with senior main characters can deal with aging issues in provoking, entertaining, and bittersweet ways.  They can lead us to a better understanding and appreciation of our own situations.

​Current bestseller Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt has two senior main characters.  Marcellus, a charming and grumpy Pacific octopus approaching the end of his life, is the narrator.  Marcellus’s relationship with “Coffman-age” cleaning lady, Tova Sullivan, is an exploration into family, friendship, loneliness, grief, looking back at our lives and facing death with dignity. Marcellus is an example for us all.  (In the Coffman Library, shelved in Recent & Relevant.)

I laughed out loud reading The Thursday Murder Club, the first of the Thursday Murder Club series, by Richard Osman. Several humorous descriptions of the retirement community that is the setting for the series could have taken place here at Coffman. The life experiences and wisdom of the retired main characters--
Elizabeth ex-spy, Joyce former nurse, Ibrahim ex-psychiatrist and Ron retired union activist--allows them to investigate unsolved murders using their professional skills. There are four in this series, and the fourth, The Last Devil to Die, has a sensitive and thought -provoking treatment of the “right to die” issue as the characters deal with the death of Elizabeth’s beloved spouse. (In the Coffman Library, shelved in Mystery/Spy.)
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And then there are my personal favorites--characters who have aged along with me, throughout a series.  John Sanford has done it with Lucas Davenport, Laurence Block with Mathew Scudder, Donna Leon with Guido Brunetti. I recently reread the Dorothea Sayers series with Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane.  The titles have not held up as well as I would have liked BUT Jill Paton Walsh has carried on with the series with four terrific titles where Lord Peter and Harriet grow old together. In The Late Scholar, Lord Peter is in his 60s, and they return to the Oxford of Gaudy Night. (Full series at the Ramsey County Library, kindle and paper editions. The Late Scholar is in the Coffman Library, shelved in Mystery/Spy.)