Reviews
"Willard Spiegelman's Senior Moments is a work of deep seriousness and profundity delivered with lightness, moral poise, and a warm, witty, conversational humility. It is dulce et utile both--a balm to the reader thinking (or trying to think) about ageing and mortality; and a practical guide to some of the surprising, hardy-perennial pleasures that can unexpectedly survive and deepen, even as one's hours, days, months, years, dwindle. Spiegelman is cherishable in the same friendly, yet paradoxical, way Montaigne is--robustly sad, joyfully unillusioned, and yet alive to life in a manner that both consoles and delights."--Terry Castle "Aging is our universal condition: the only question is whether we approach our seniority kicking and screaming or proceed with some degree of style and, let us hope, capacity for happiness. Spiegelman's wise, witty, spirited essays show how we might work our way over to the style-and-happiness route, and are as good a guide for living well--at any age--as any other that I know."--Ben Fountain "They say we are living in a golden age of the personal essay, and it's true . . . Walk with Willard through New York, Tokyo, Dallas, his personal library, museums--walk with Willard through life."--Mark Oppenheimer "Spiegelman makes a reliable ambassador for the changes that advancing years bring, animated by gratitude and warmly ready for further inquiry: he might be giving, and making more achievable, Pope's famous advice: "Keep good humor still, whate'er we lose."--Stephen Burt "Willard Spiegelman is a wise old soul."--Raymond Sokolov "A book so vivid and personable that one has the impression of sitting across a dinner table from its author. He talks to us in a tone at once convivial and elegiac as he addresses some of life's biggest questions: What makes us happy? How can we make the best use of our brief lifetimes? To tackle these, Spiegelman brings to bear his vast erudition, humane intelligence, wit, and personal candor. The result is a beautiful and wise book about making daily life a meaningful pleasure."--Rhonda Garelick " Senior Moments takes us on a learned, witty meander from "Talk" to "Quiet," passing through Dallas, Japan, New York City, books, and art along the way. He treads so lightly, it takes a while to notice that this is a guidebook to aging and preparation--with grace and sweetness--for the final silence."--Rosanna Warren
