cover image Shedding Years: Growing Older, Feeling Younger

Shedding Years: Growing Older, Feeling Younger

Phyllis Greene. Villard Books, $19.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50919-3

In this follow-up to her well-received memoir on widowhood (It Must Have Been Moonglow), octogenarian Greene explains how she's""gotten younger"" since the publication of her first book. She""shed years in the writing"" and on book tour; her computer, she says, is the""fountain of youth."" But shedding years comes from other things too--from learning to accept unwelcome changes""gracefully"";""seeking our own best solution""; and not worrying too much--and it is these lessons that she so earnestly tries to explain. Greene is at her best when recollecting significant moments in her past--the ladies' luncheon groups called the Jingles and the Meanies, for example, or the family adventures with household (and even body) maintenance. Unfortunately, many of her brief chapters alight on such diverse (and mundane) topics as Greene's difficulties with modern telecommunications (she has trouble answering her cell phone), the contents of her household bulletin board (photos, favorite quotes and cartoons) and the frustrations of tamperproof packaging. Greene often charms and sometimes enlightens, but with so many quick scattered vignettes, her book feels muddled and inconsistent.