Sometimes it seems that everyone wants to tell older women how they should behave, what their role is, what their life is for. It seems that the experience of 60+ years of life is not expected to assist older women in managing their own lives. Fiction can challenge these expectations. Here is an older woman, … Continue reading All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
This is the third of my choices from the UK in the series featuring older women in fiction around the world. It is more recent than the previous selections, being published in 2014 and immediately it was winning prizes and topping charts. Maud is a very sympathetic figure, and presented with a great deal of … Continue reading Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Claudia Hampton is 76 years old and approaching the end of her life. In fiction final days are serene, composed, moving calmly towards reconciliation and conclusion. Or it might be a gloomy time, full of regrets for those who will live on as well as for the dying. In Moon Tiger Penelope Lively gives us an … Continue reading Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The first in my choice of older women in fiction around the world in the UK is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. Published in 1971, in this delightful novel Elizabeth Taylor does a great job of respecting older people and sympathetically revealing the challenges they face. She doesn’t lump all older people together, … Continue reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Is there any hope?
This is my final week as guest blogger on this site. The focus this week is on older women in fiction from the UK. There are more than enough books to fill the days. To introduce them I want to consider some of the ageist and sexist assumptions that shape how older women are represented … Continue reading Is there any hope?
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
This is the second older woman from the Middle East. Aaliya is the creation of Rabih Alameddine, who is of Lebanese origin. He writes in English. He has chosen a poignant title, for around the world older women are made to feel unnecessary. This has been going on for centuries, think of the legend of … Continue reading An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour
Of all the novels I have read about older women this has aroused the strongest emotions in me. The woman, Ruqayya, 70, has held the grief of her family as well as her own suffering since she was 12. Ruqayya was born in a village that was claimed for the new state of Israel, and … Continue reading The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is the longest title in the series on older Women in fiction around the world. The novel brings you a woman of 75, living in San Francisco and of Nigerian origin. The author Sarah Ladipo Manyika was born in 1968 and raised in Nigeria. She taught English … Continue reading Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The African/Middle East section of older women around the world begins here, in South Africa, more specifically, in post-Apartheid South Africa. I found The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso in a list of recommended books by women of colour. It features a feud between two older women so here's a novel with not one but two … Continue reading The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The story so far
This is the story so far in my August sojourn among older women in fiction around the world. We are well into the month and just starting week three. In the first two weeks I have selected some fiction from North America and was gratified by the readership and comments on the posts. I moved … Continue reading The story so far
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 