Late in Life in Literature

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The movie version of Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night novel starred Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. 

A person’s later years comprise a life’s p.m. — which also might stand for poignant and moving. There can be declining health, death of loved ones, loneliness, regrets, and other negatives — as well as positives such as the gaining of wisdom and the experiencing of memorable “last hurrahs.”

Such is the case with various fictional characters — including the older protagonists in Kent Haruf’s bittersweet novel Our Souls at Night, which I read “late” last month. It stars a widowed woman (Addie) and a widowed man (Louis) who barely knew each other as neighbors when their spouses were alive but develop an interestingly offbeat relationship soon after the compelling book begins. They find a good measure of happiness but also face challenges — such as dealing with judgmental residents of their small town, a son who tries to break up their relationship, and the responsibilities of taking care of a previously neglected grandchild. Making Our Souls at Night even more elegiac is that it was Haruf’s final novel, published about six months after his 2014 death.

There are few novels with as much of a “last hurrah” as Jonas Jonasson’s The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, whose protagonist experiences more adventures after reaching the century mark than most people a quarter or half his age.

Or how about Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman? That book uses the main character’s extremely advanced age (110) to recount Jane’s often-difficult life as well as take a general look at the U.S. sociopolitical climate from the time of slavery to the modern civil rights movement.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, about a very delayed late-life romance, also fits this theme. The male co-protagonist can be annoyingly sexist at times, but the novel is beautifully written.

Among the many other lead or supporting characters who are memorable in old age are the brilliant wizard Dumbledore of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, the long-suffering Iris Chase of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, Miss Marple the amateur detective in various Agatha Christie mysteries, Emily Pollifax the amateur spy in Dorothy Gilman’s novels, the loner grandfather in Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, the problematic family patriarch Larry Cook in Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, the woodsman Natty Bumppo at end of life in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie, the dying George Washington Crosby in Paul Harding’s Tinkers, the “Chowder Society” men in Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, and of course the title character in Honore de Balzac’s Old Goriot as well as Santiago the fisherman in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

Any thoughts on this week’s theme and novels you’ve read that fit it?

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column for Baristanet.com every Thursday. The latest piece — about an outrageous monetary demand from a misogynist township manager and some alternatives to the ending of a long-time local bus service — is here.

97 thoughts on “Late in Life in Literature”

    • Thank you, vanaltman! A bit ageist of her, though I guess over 50 was considered older back when Agatha Christie wrote than it’s considered today. Of course, Ms. Christie herself eventually lived way past 50. I wonder when she started thinking of herself as old? 🙂

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  3. Again, because it fits so well with the topic at hand, I commend “Chaos and Night” by Henry de Montherlant to interested readers.

    Celestino Marcilla is a Spanish anarchist of good family, now decades after the civil war has ended and miles and a border away from his native country, a stranger whose greatest efforts are expended in the maintenance of his otherness in the midst of Paris. He has formed few relationships in France, and those few he does have are tested by his capricious turns of thought, nearly always political thought, though how these thoughts impact his actions and conversation are not always or even often noted by those whom he has cut off over a testy exchange in a shabby cafe, or invited to dine as a display of affection meant to hurt a third party scrupulously not invited. Hardly out of character, given his political anarchy, that he is deeply estranged, by politics and pride, forever associating with and disassociating himself from others, harboring resentments only glancingly revealed, and often in moments of sudden rage, his daughter, now of marrying age, no exception to his capriciousness.

    Most of his time he expends on letters to newspapers; most of the letters, typed dutifully by his daughter,he files away in his desk drawer, unsent. He begins to have intimations of impending death, and buys proper furniture, heavy and suitable to surround him in his last hours.

    Another death, the sudden passing of his sister in Madrid, interrupts his own funereal obsessions, and inspires one last trip to the old country, now made over under Franco,and seemingly oblivious to Marcilla’s passe politics and ancient fears. He has been a man grown old in place, his life a for years a rut of routine punctuated by flare-ups, as if by changing nothing from day to day, nothing can change him, while around him, in small subtractions, the world makes his small world over, leaving him a man apart, against the grain of now,out of place and time.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! VERY eloquent words about an older character, and how the world changes — whether the older character changes along with it or not. Sounds like the book is excellent and beautifully written, as was your comment. “Chaos and Night” is on my list.

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      • “Celestino Marcilla, Spanish is anarchist of good family” should read ‘Celestino Marcilla is a Spanish anarchist of good family’– bad editing is entirely to blame. Please repair, and thank you!

        Couldn’t think of another novel featuring an older central character, apart from a Miss Marple, and even in those, she rides the plot thread to its unexpected conclusion, but is usually subsumed as a character on whom to focus, as the murderer and red herrings and macguffins and likely suspects and seemingly innocents take most of the attention, the wise and piercing insights of the elderly detective most central at book’s end, and only to a lesser degree, throughout. As Mandy and I grow older, the means, seated behind the wings of an armchair, standing near open doors in the hall, by which Miss Marple overhears and spies on oblivious others seems the most realistic aspect in the Christie series: old people are so ignorable by the young.

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        • Repaired!

          The last point in your follow-up comment is a very astute and interesting one. Older people can indeed in some cases be almost “invisible” to younger people, so that did give Miss Marple somewhat of an advantage.

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  4. Hi Dave, I have been reading the new comments and it just occurred to me that you get a lot more books with older characters and ‘hero/heroines’ now in our modern day than existed in the past. I think that is because a lot of people turn to writing when they retire and they write characters they can relate to. That links to my second thought that people live much longer now and our productive lives are longer so older people in positions and activities is much more common now. What do you think?

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  5. I’m thinking of “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks.

    Now, I’m not sure what all happens, but I’m reading “The Housekeeper”, by Joy Fielding.
    We are spending a lot of time in the elderly parents’ home. The mother has Parkinson’s, and is bedridden. The father is too old and weak to lift her in and out of bed.
    The housekeeper is also older… has a son around mid 30’s. She is fit for her age.
    She’s widowed twice. Hmmmmm
    Anyway, there is something interesting going on in the writing style.
    Neat topic, Dave!

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    • Thank you, Resa! Although Nicholas Sparks is considered hokey by some, I’ve liked the two novels of his I’ve read (“A Walk to Remember” and “Message in a Bottle”).

      “The Housekeeper” sounds interesting and intense. Not surprised, given that it’s Joy Fielding. 🙂 I appreciate your intriguing description of that novel.

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      • Hokey… well sometimes that can be okay.
        Perhaps not enough hokey is one thing making society a colder place.
        Just a thought!
        Re: “The Housekeeper” – There’s an interesting style via format thing going on as well. Will get back on that!

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        • I agree, Resa — hokey (or sentimental or whatever word is used to describe it) can be good. Certainly better than cold and unfeeling.

          Re “The Housekeeper,” it sounds like an ambitious novel! Also a good thing. 🙂

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          • Reading is going a bit slower than even my turtle reading speed. That is because I am reading out loud to my Norman, Joy’s 1st cousin, father’s side.
            I tried reading “Grand Avenue” to him, but he was “not in” anymore before one chapter was read.
            He thinks he did read one of her books once, but has no memory. 🙄
            Anyway, due to the unusual format style I mentioned, seems like he’ll be “in” ’til the end.

            I once mentioned that I thought she is underrated. Of course, as a Canadian novelist, there is the shadow of Margret Atwood.
            I think the thing about Joy’s fiction is that she writes about everyday people, commonplace lives, usual jobs, suburbs, condos, family bonds, etc.
            It is the common threads of what happens in regular life that she bases her stories in.
            Yet, there is no lack of suspense, drama or even horror in her tales.
            There are no dystopian worlds, time travel, monsters (except for the regular human sort).
            In brief, she has a talent for making the ordinary, unordinary.

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  7. A detective over sixty I love is Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk in a monastery in Shrewsbury, England. If you haven’t read any of the series, the first one is “A Morbid Taste for Bones.” They’re delightful.

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  8. Hi Dave, this is a great topic. I need to think of books that start with older characters. I can think of many where the characters age and much of the story takes place when they are older, such as A Gentleman in Moscow, Revival by Stephen King, and The Thorn Birds. The Old Man and the Sea is my favourite Hemmingway.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! Excellent observation that some novels with older characters depict those characters in their younger years earlier in the book. That of course happens in series, too, such as the musketeers eventually getting quite a bit older in Alexandre Dumas’ sequels to “The Three Musketeers.”

      Loved, loved, loved “A Gentleman in Moscow” — and “The Thorn Birds” is great, too!

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  9. I’m thinking of Rooster Cogburn in Charles Portis’s True Grit and also Charles Halloway in Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. I’m currently reading Nocturne: A Journey In Search Of Moonlight by James Attlee, which includes a story about Mussolini, who had a pathological fear of moonlight and a brief description of his death. He and his mistress had been hanged upside down in the town square of Piazzale Loreto to be mocked and abused. He was 61 and his mistress only 33, so this is a our souls at night gone south. Serves him right. All fascist dictators should heed their eventual demise. No one wants a government like that. If only…hmm. Great theme, thanks Dave. And happy birthday. Susi https://books.google.com/books/about/Nocturne.html?id=uG9RTN_g9HIC

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    • Thank you, Susi! Great mentions — including those Portis and Bradbury characters! And, yes, fascists like Mussolini deserve(d) the worse. Too bad they do so much horrendous damage before their own demise.

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  10. Oooh this one made me think a little – I even had to consult my reading list to get some ideas! Although Marilla Cuthbert was the first to come to my mind 🙂 She and Matthew both wind up with quite the PM surprise when Anne comes into their world. One of the main characters in Cloud Cuckoo Land is also in his twilight years, but that certainly doesn’t count him out, as you find later in the book. I also enjoyed the Olive Kitteridge books – while she is more middle-aged in the first book, she is elderly in the second (“Olive, Again”), which I almost enjoyed a bit more.

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    • Thank you, M.B.! Great mention of the Cuthbert siblings! They might have been in their late 50s or early 60s in the novel, but that was considered older in the 19th century — and they were certainly quite a bit older than Anne! The Cuthberts’ lives did indeed change radically when Anne arrived.

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  12. You remind me of great books, such as “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”, “The old man and the Sea”, and, of course, Heidi and “de Alpöhi”. If it’s also allowed to mention a writer, such as Frank McCourt, who wrote in his successful book “Angela’s Ashes” about his childhood memories when he was alread retired. Many thanks for your many book titles, which give me a good feeling!

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    • Thank you, Dan! Glad you found enjoyment from some of the books mentioned, or their movie versions. (I still have very fond memories of seeing all eight “Harry Potter” films after reading the seven books.)

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    • Thank you, Carol, and you’re welcome for the recommendations! I’m glad you found the movie version of “Our Souls at Night” appealing. I should watch that film for the first time at some point. 🙂

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  16. Those old men in Straub’s Ghost Story are quite memorable, and the book is typical Straub in that it’s sort of strange. The only old guy I could think of quickly is Stephen King’s Bill Hodges. I’ve read only the last book of the 3, but remember him as admirably persistent in trying to foil the bad guy, even though he was dying.

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  17. I found the the movie “Our Souls at Night” before I read the book. I found the book darker than the movie. In addition to Tinkers, the late in light book that comes to mind is October Light by John Gardner. I remember enjoying it, although it got mixed reviews.

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  18. I loved the movie Our Souls at Night, expertly acted of course. I would count myself lucky to meet someone and have a companion for the next years of my life!

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  19. The first book that came to mind, Dave was “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” which is a novel written by Rebecca Wells published in 1996. It was turned into a movie with brilliant actors (see trailer). The story is about a mother-daughter (Vivi & Siddalee) relationship set in Louisiana and spans several decades explored through the lives of four women who had been friends since childhood. The novel explores themes of love, regret, forgiveness, and the complexities of family relationships.

    Doesn’t everyone want to be a member of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood?

    “Some women pray for their daughters to marry good husbands. I pray that my girls will find girlfriends half as loyal and true as the Ya-Yas.” Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

    A great post, Dave. I will be back to read the follow-up discussion.

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    • I found the theme delightful as well, and I’ll add to your list a book I saw a blogger give a negative, but interesting review. So I read the book and found to be, well, delightful! It’s The Thursday Murder Club, and it centers on a group of 4 older folks who live in a retirement home and, well, solve murders 🙂 But aside from the murders, there is much in the book that matches the description in your first paragraph, and more, the power of friendship and a community.

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      • Thank you, Endless Weekend! “The Thursday Murder Club” sounds very interesting, and I just put it on my to-read list. The combination of sleuthing and friendship/community is a nice one. 🙂 Also interesting how people can have very different views of the same book.

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          • Hoping my local library has it! If so, it might be a couple months before I can read it because I recently got a number of books for my birthday that I should read first. 🙂 I admire your contrariness in this instance; sometimes a review can indeed evoke an opposite reaction.

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              • Thank you, Endless Weekend! Family and friends know the kind of gift I like. 🙂 The novels I received for my birthday were “The Rules of Civility” by Amor Towles (I LOVED his “A Gentleman in Moscow”), “The Da Vinci Code,” Caleb Carr’s “The Angel of Darkness” (sequel to “The Alienist”), and Mary Robinette Kowal’s “The Fated Sky” (sequel to “The Calculating Stars” about a woman astronaut). Plus I have one more novel — Kristin Hannah’s “Home Front” — to read from my recent library haul.

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                  • Yup. Forgot to mention his name. 🙂

                    I select my to-read list in various ways — with the major way these days getting recommendations from commenters here on this blog, as well as from family and non-blog friends. 🙂 Also, if I like an author, I read more by that author. Sometimes reviews convince me to try a book. Sometimes a novel randomly strikes me while I’m looking at library or bookstore shelves. Etc.

                    How about you? How do you choose what to read?

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                    • For the most part, I, too, depend on recommendations (or reviews that I found intriguing, even if they didn’t really recommend the book :P), and additional books from favorite authors. But I also sometimes “browse” and make semi-random selections from genres I’m interested at the time. I found some real gems that way! It seems like a good way to “break out” of the same “clique” of books, sometimes?

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      • I have also read mixed reviews about The Thursday Murder Club. From what I gather the plot is good but the author doesn’t worry much about realism and factual accuracy. My mother read and enjoyed it but this was her overarching comment and she isn’t going to read the next book in the series.

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        • Oh, please elaborate on this! I’m normally extremely good at discovering inconsistencies, please share where you/your mom found those inaccuracies?

          I was a little disappointed with the ending, but overall found the writing style fun and engaging, and, yes, you have to suspend disbelief a little here and there, but then again, in what murder-mystery don’t you, at least a little bit? 🙂

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    • You’re more than welcome ❤ I enjoyed this novel so very much. The ending maybe could have been more sweet and less bitter, but I was very impressed by Haruf's writing. To say so much in so few pages! I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

      I hope you've had a nice Easter weekend 🙂

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      • Thank you again, Susan! Yes, the ending was not exactly upbeat, but that’s life (in many cases). And I agree that the novel said a lot in a relatively small number of pages. I also look forward to reading more of Kent Haruf when I get a chance.

        Hope you’ve had a nice holiday weekend, too!

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