Live a Little
Man-Booker prize winning author Howard Jacobson tells us how falling in love at any age is possible. The tender nonagenarian love story revolves around how love blossoms between two ninety something’s and the role memory plays when the past meets the present.
The story is somewhat like this. Beryl Dusinbery is above 90 and she is forgetting everything, including her own children. Most of her days are spent stitching and chatting with her two long-suffering caregivers, Nastya and Euphoria. She torments them throughout the day with tangled stories of her husbands and love affairs.
Here comes Shimi Carmelli, again over 90, but still as bright as ever. Unlike Beryl, he forgets nothing and even the incidents of his childhood hang like a sword over his present. He can walk without any aid, can do up his own buttons and when he speaks no spitting occurs. He is considered the last of the eligible bachelors among the widows of North London.
There’s very little life remaining for either of them, but it is enough to find new meaning in what’s left of their lives. It is also enough to heal some of the hurt inflicted by others over the last several decades. It’s a book where the author doesn’t fail to charm us with his wit and style. It’s a novel that will take you down the nostalgic lane, a book that will make you rethink about all the paths not taken and whether you could still have courage left to change your life’s course. Pick it up as your next read.