How to Age

December 1, 2014
Part of the School of Life series (How to Stay Sane, 2012; How to Think More about Sex, 2012), Karpf's pithy and cogent treatise calls for us to embrace aging as a lifelong process. Not that Karpf dismisses the difficulties of advanced age, but she believes that our fear of getting old is debilitating. Age would be a much healthier aspect of life if we didn't dread and disparage it. Karpf critiques our extreme obsession with looking young and how it fuels a gargantuan anti-aging industry based mostly on fantasy, and she protests age-apartheid. Reminding us of neurological studies that reveal the lasting elasticity of our brains, Karpf cites fascinating and diverse examples that confirm the fact that age helps us discover enduring sources of meaning. Wittily philosophical, Karpf declares that ageism is prejudice against one's future self. We should live time to the hilt since we can't stop it, cultivating passion, vitality, humor, and creativity, which are possible at every age. One more observation to help us shake off apprehension: There's never been a better time to age. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)