Saxton’s beautifully fluid prose would be a pleasure to read while relaxing at the beach. A thought-provoking, informative, and valuable literary analysis.
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The Book of Old Ladies reminds us of the true joy of reading fiction. This joy has little to do with what is trendy or what makes the loudest argument, but how literature sustains living. Ruth Saxton is an elegant writer, and this thoughtful book is a gem for anyone who understands the meaning of life-long connection to literature.
Yiyun Li, 2010 MacArthur Fellow and PEN/Jean Stein Book Award–winning author of Where Reasons End and Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life
Surprises and delights await readers of Ruth Saxton’s The Book of Old Ladies, a fresh take on literary expectations as well as cultural stereotypes regarding ‘women of a certain age.’
Roberta Rubenstein, PhD, author of Literary Half-Lives and Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View
The Book of Old Ladies is a stunning reclamation and affirmation of what is possible for women’s lives . . . an urgent and necessary and long overdue resource for scholars and general readers alike.
Patricia Powell, Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award–winning author of The Fullness of Everything and The Pagoda
. . . a marvelously curated collection of must read stories that carve a path forward for women who have come of age—and whose time has finally come.
Julie Shigekuni, PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award–winning author of In Plain View and Unending Nora
The Book of Old Ladies is an inspiration for what life can be like in my future.
SKY BERGMAN, AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER AND PROFESSOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO AT CAL POLY STATE UNIVERSITY
Saxton teases out the diverse ways that the aging fictional women had to reimagine and reinvent themselves, just as she did, to cope with the demands of a society that dismisses their contributions and demeans their intelligence.
Julie Chappell, PhD, author of Faultlines and Perilous Passages
In The Book of Old Ladies, Ruth Saxton offers readers, through curated conversation, the opportunity to defy the sweet-as-the-day-is-long stereotype and to examine the more fully developed and—thank goodness—realistic senior woman.
JENNIFER KING, DIRECTOR OF THE DOWNTOWN OAKLAND SENIOR CENTER
With an engaging, conversational style and feminist lens, Ruth Saxton guides us through an array of twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels and stories . . . an essential read.
EILEEN BARRETT, EDITOR OF AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS: DIVERSE VOICES IN PROSE AND PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Ruth O. Saxton 