How to Age Disgracefully
A Novel
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4.3 • 148 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“An uproarious romp!” —People
“Pooley weaves together the most cleverly flawed and lovable characters and then sets them free to prove that we are limitless at any age.” —Annabel Monaghan, bestselling author of Summer Romance
A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from New York Times-bestselling author Clare Pooley
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.
The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pooley (Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting) charms in this rollicking tale of six wily members of a London Senior Citizens Social Club whose zest for life improves the outlook of their community center's part-time worker. Lydia takes a job managing their club as respite from her condescending husband, who she suspects is having an affair. She expects docile card games and is surprised to meet such a vigorous group of older people. Among them is Art, a former soap opera actor who keeps himself entertained by shoplifting; Daphne, a busybody who rarely talks to the others and enjoys the "sensation of power that an imbalance of information imbued"; and Ruth, a "small but fierce-looking" knitter whose unauthorized public art earns such headlines as "Mystery Yarn Bomber of Hammersmith Strikes Again!" When the local council decides to sell the community center to a real estate developer, Lydia's motley crew attempts to block the deal by pulling off various stunts, like sabotaging a meeting between the council and an architect. Along the way, their tenacity helps Lydia rediscover her self-respect. Pooley's clever and delightfully farcical scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, often thanks to the frank Daphne. This ought to satisfy Pooley's fans and win her new ones.
Customer Reviews
Cute, quick read
Funny plot, character development was great. The inclusivity felt forced.
Made me smile
A very refreshing and fun love story.
Enjoyed every moment
Absolutely excellent! I laughed out loud so many times. What a great story.