Writer. Contributing Editor at The Discarded Image. Digital Content Strategist. Here's where I publicly explore the books I'm reading, the projects I'm working on, and other current interests. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
Success is the best revenge, they say. The question is what constitutes success. Salary? Street address? Relationships? Elizabeth Buchan tackles the subject in her novel Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman.
Before she felt the need to get revenge, Rose thought of herself as successful. “Put crudely,†she told herself, “my ambitions were to be a good mother, a Good Wife (to Nathan, of course), and have my career. I wanted others in my life to nurture. Not very grand, certainly not earth-shattering, some might say boring. Convenient? Yes and no. We have to choose something, opt for some species of shelter—and I found those ambitions immensely absorbing, ever changing.â€
And change they do. In her late 40s, Rose is the books editor for a London newspaper. With her two children just out of the nest, she devotes more time to her career and her backyard garden. She takes pleasure in small domestic joys and small successes at the paper, until a single fist strikes a triple blow: she loses her husband, her job, and eventually her house to her ambitious, glamorous, younger assistant.
In her loss, Rose experiences shock, anger, despair. She loses weight, then gains it. She doesn’t dress for days, then goes to Paris and buys French lingerie. She neglects her garden, then spends days attacking the weeds and infestations. Her old-school mother says it must be her fault; her jaded friends insist that being tossed out is a middle-age rite of passage; her son’s all-business girlfriend declares that “as an organizational principle, love has flaws.†Rose struggles to right herself with the ground moving beneath her, trying to focus on what is important. Rather than getting even, she keeps her own dark side in check, as when she sees the quality of the paper’s books section slipping under the direction of the new editor, and notes: “There was a sad little law that applied to abandoned wives: if they were not careful, they fed with appetite on their usurper’s mistakes and shortfalls.â€
Her kids rally around her even as they continue to depend on her, and both their support and dependence bolster her faltering self-worth. Eventually she makes new friends and reconnects with an old flame, and also starts over again in the publishing world. Rose’s new life is different from the old, but she comes to terms with it and finds new ways to be happy.
This book could be classified as mid-life chick lit; it’s not quite serious literature, but Buchan tells Rose’s tragic (and unfortunately familiar to many women) story with intelligence, honesty, and humor, making it both endearing and informative. If there is a prevailing worldview in this book, it’s that change is inevitable, thus happiness is to be sought within oneself rather than in other people and social constructs. It is a bit too pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps for my way of thinking. But at the same time, in a world where the average woman is represented in advertising by 19-year-old models, it is an engaging incentive not to let ourselves be defined by age, marital status, or fashion sense, but instead seek to better our minds and invest our gifts in causes we believe in, be they charity work or grandchildren. Revenge on our naysayers ultimately can be had by redefining success.
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