The loneliness of old age

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 20

The loneliness of old age

4s We Are Now. By May Sarton. Women’s Press, 1983. 134 pp. $9.50 (paperback). (Reviewed by Agnes-Mary Brooke) Caro Spencer is 76 years old, an intelligent, independent professional woman, confined through physical frailty to an unsatisfactory old people’s home. More or less abandoned by her relatives, Caro’s communication with others is monitored by those who run the home for profit, not compassion. She struggles to maintain her selfrespect and independence of spirit. This is an interesting novel, doubly so as the author did not quite succeed in what she set out to do, if by arousing pity and understanding she sought to make the reader identify with her central character. Some of May Sarton’s insights are illuminating,

such as her contention that we "are forgiven at the instant of asking for forgiveness, for asking forgiveness is an act of faith. It places the soul in eternity.” And that “old age is not interesting until one gets there.” But her horrific conclusion, including the contention that, “Things can be changed, but only by violent action,” is one that many readers would disagree with. As May Sarton is an acknowledged lesbian writer, it is interesting, too, that Caro, who had a lover but did not wish to marry, to compromise by sharing her life with another, should say that, “Families are great until you need them.” Caro overall laments the absence of sacrifice and care by more distant relatives to whom she was not prepared to commit herself. One feels, as the author wishes one to, compassion for the loneliness of any human being trapped in humiliating circumstances, in an institution as bad as this. But the intensity of May Sarton’s one-sided assessment of this problem is a weakness.