There Was an Old Woman: Reflections on these Strange, Surprising, Shining Years

In There Was An Old Woman, Andrea Carlisle presents a collection of personal essays that explore this time of life and consider misperceptions, hard truths, needs, and often beautiful complexity. This book is a rallying cry and a rejection of received wisdom about what old age should look like and how old people--especially older women--should feel and behave. In her view, old age is a long walk, not a singular moment, or even a few years, in time. This period of life needs literature for sustenance, with voices that inspire and challenge, as much as any other. Carlisle digs into what old age feels like, how it works, and the ways old women look at themselves, based on the cultural myths handed to them, as well as how they are perceived and marginalized by others. She takes on issues of aging both common (caregiving; vanity; grief; the importance of movement) and uncommon (the expansion of consciousness and curiosity in old age; the impact of how stories about older women are told, and the way the old are excluded as central characters from almost all of literature). She discusses intergenerational bonds, the many forms of ageism, poverty, loneliness, erasure, friendship, art, and a variety of other topics.