Alter does not protect against youth

The brilliant columnist Jutta Voigt shows us what it means to stay young while growing older. She tells of the comforting yet painful identification with youth that stretches the arc of life to the breaking point. The narrative is 'From the Life of an Older Lady': 'When I enter a café, no conversation falls silent, no eyes are turned toward me. I find that perfectly fine. I have had enough of standing at attention before my décolletage, of being on high alert with the click of my high heels, of the reverent silence before a smile.' It’s about a woman who loves her washing machine more than her husband. About a striptease at a deathbed. And about a man who leaves his young lover for a peer because she shares the same subtext in her soul. The late-night show of a generation for whom eternal youth has become a duty.

'A powerful book and so beautifully provocative. This is the humor one needs for aging gracefully!' Dieter Hildebrandt.