In How
to Age Disgracefully, Clare Pooley
delivers another off-beat comedy--with a hopeful message--that brings together
a cast of quirky, raucous British pensioners whose lively antics will charm
readers.
The story is set amidst a London-Metro community center in need
of revitalization—literally and figuratively. A roof collapse kills the
headmistress. Lydia, a 53-year-old wife and mother--and a once in-demand food
stylist who is suffering a mid-life crisis--has been hired as the facility’s
new Senior Citizens’ Social Club. However, a ceiling collapse kills one of
their members during the first meeting. In addition to stepping up to establish
the club, Lydia and the group also take on “Maggie Thatcher,” the
“ugly-looking,” now orphaned dog of the deceased woman.
The small club is comprised of septuagenarians who are vastly different
in backgrounds and temperaments who are in search of adventure. The group
includes a former businesswoman-turned-loner with secrets; an aging actor
with kleptomaniac tendencies, who’s tired of playing grumpy old
men and dead bodies; a retired paparazzo; a hardcore knitting addict; and woman
who is ‘pushy,’ in every sense of the word, including how she navigates her
walker. Lydia learns that managing the health and safety of this
less-than-sedate group--on a cash-strapped budget--is no easy task. And when
the town threatens to bulldoze their hangout, the group rebels in hilarious
ways—complete with help from kids at the nursery school, housed in the same
facility.
Readers are in for great fun, traveling along with Pooley’s (The
Authenticity Project, Iona
Iverson’s Rules for Commuting) assembly of
madcap characters who refuse to succumb to age—or play by the rules
How
to Age Disgracefully by
Clare Pooley
Pamela
Dorman Books/Penguin, $29.00 hardcover, 352 pages, 9780593831496
Publishing Date: June 11, 2024
To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE
NOTE: This review is a reprint and is
being posted with the permission of Shelf
Awareness. To read this
review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (July 5, 2024), link HERE