54 pages • 1 hour read
Clare PooleyHow to Age Disgracefully
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 14-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Three Months Earlier”
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary: “Daphne”
Daphne is enjoying having the dog, which she addresses as Margaret in honor of the late Queen Elizabeth’s sister, of whom she thinks: “Now, there was someone who kicked arse and never took prisoners. And such style” (81).
Daphne is proud of comments made about her on OurNeighbours.com describing her speech at the community center meeting. She also sees a photo of the postbox outside the community town hall wearing a giant red yarn hat, and knows it is Ruby’s work.
Daphne reflects that she knows nothing about taking care of babies as she goes to collect Kylie from the nursery. She returns to Ziggy’s council estate and stares down one of the gang members, who is watching her. Ziggy’s flat is tidy but small. Kylie cries when Daphne sets her on the floor, so Daphne gives her a bracelet to play with.
Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary: “Ziggy”
Ziggy finds Daphne reading a magazine while Kylie plays with her packet of cigarettes. He realizes Kylie needs changing and takes care of her, wondering, “How could someone so small elicit such huge emotions? A complex tangle of resentment, fear, and confusion, all wrapped up in the most overwhelming, primal love” (91). Ziggy realizes that Kylie swallowed a stone from Daphne’s bracelet, which Daphne assures him is a fake diamond.
He tries to help Daphne set up a dating profile, even though she wants to answer all of the profile questions with, “I’d rather not say” (94). Ziggy suggests Daphne use a more recent photograph for her dating profile. He finds Daphne very challenging to work with.
Part 1, Chapter 16 Summary: “Art”
Art is unable to sleep, haunted by how different his life is from what he wanted. He knows he needs to confront his issues and so enters Kerry’s bedroom, which is unchanged from when she left. The room “is a constant reminder of everything he’d lost, and everything he despised about his life and himself” (98).
The wardrobe is full of stolen items, from toys and clothing to baked goods. He’s looked up Kerry on social media but knows only that he has grandchildren he’s never seen. Art takes the toys and clothing to the nursery for the children and, for the first time in a while, feels pride instead of shame.
Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary: “Lydia”
Anna arrives at the club meeting shouting through a loudspeaker, calling for people to save the community center. She shows off her newly dyed orange hair, saying she sees gray hair as “a blank canvas” (103). Daphne hints it is suspicious that Anna has lost five husbands. Lydia, passing around a cake she baked, brought a jigsaw puzzle as an activity, but Art suggests they help the nursery school put on their nativity play.
Lydia, who is reading another self-help book about menopause, feels she is falling apart. Art and William show her pictures they took of Jeremy, which includes him kissing a young, attractive blonde woman on the cheek. Lydia wonders when Jeremy stopped paying attention to her and if she did something to cause it. Daphne asks William if he will take some pictures for her dating profile.
Part 1, Chapter 18 Summary: “Ziggy”
At school, Ziggy bumps into Alicia, a red-haired young woman who plays the oboe. Daphne texts Ziggy to pick Kylie up at the pub. Ziggy is roped into helping take pictures of Daphne with Art and William. William mentions that he has contacts from a newspaper coming to cover the nativity play, but he also heard the council already has a proposal for turning the community center into a luxury apartment complex. Ziggy feels that his “world—which had, for just an hour or so, felt as if it were expanding—contracted to a pinprick” (115). If he doesn’t have childcare, he has no hope of finishing school.
Part 1, Chapter 19 Summary: “Art”
Art gives three cashmere sweaters he’s stolen to a man he finds sleeping beneath an underpass. For the first time, “Art felt as if his life were on an upward trajectory” (116). The social club, surveillance of Jeremy, training Maggie, and directing the nativity play are giving him a sense of purpose.
Art oversees casting for the play, in which Tallulah will play the star, Kylie will be Baby Jesus, Lucky will be a shepherd holding Maggie as a sheep, and Noah asks to be the Virgin Mary.
Later, Art and William sit outside of Jeremy’s office building drinking coffee and playing their favorite game, “Best Way to Die” (121). Art and William have been friends since childhood. They see Jeremy emerge from his building with the pretty young woman. William leaves to follow them. A passerby throws coins into Art’s cup.
Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary: “Ziggy”
Ziggy lingers after his tutoring session with Mr. Wingate so he can run into Alicia. She asks to see a picture of Kylie. He asks if some of the orchestra could perform at the nativity play.
Walking home, Ziggy is waylaid by Floyd, one of the gang leaders on the estate, who pressures Ziggy into working for him.
Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary: “Daphne”
Daphne is pleased that she has learned to change a diaper through videos on YouTube. As she watches a reality TV show with Kylie, Daphne reflects, “She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt a physical or emotional connection to another human being” (129). She takes Kylie out on the balcony so she can smoke a cigarette and chats to the baby. She observes Ziggy talking with another boy and takes Kylie inside to pretend she is reading her a book. Daphne talks about the men she has met on the dating website, and Ziggy cautions her to have a plan of extraction in case the date goes badly. Daphne asks if Ziggy will be her emergency contact.
Daphne meets Tony for dinner and finds him pedantic and rude. She texts Ziggy, who calls pretending to be her friend Taylor, claiming he is in trouble. Daphne pours wine in Tony’s lap and leaves the restaurant. She passes Art and William sitting outside a pub and joins them. They include her in their best-way-to-die game and Daphne enjoys their banter. William observes that Art and Daphne seem very similar.
Part 1, Chapter 22 Summary: “Lydia”
Lydia’s daughters are home over the holidays and she enjoys having a full house with her husband and now a dog. She thinks she was silly to doubt Jeremy and tells herself, “It was the empty nest, the menopause, and the acres of time on her hands that had made her temporarily lose the plot” (138).
Rehearsals for the nativity play are a bit chaotic. Lydia reports that none of the council are planning to attend, and Daphne insists that they take some children and go to the town hall. They draw quite a bit of attention, but Daphne manages to inspire Lydia. When they learn that the council has a Christmas dinner at the time of their play, Daphne has Lydia call the restaurant to reschedule so everyone on the council can attend the performance. Lydia enjoys Daphne’s approval.
Part 1, Chapter 23 Summary: “Art”
Art is excited about the nativity performance. Musicians have come from Ziggy’s school, he brought goods he pilfered from Starbucks for the refreshment table, and he borrowed, instead of stealing, a tree for decoration. William’s photographer friends are there, and the whole council is present. Art performs as narrator of the play, adding a bit of political commentary. The performance goes well, with Maggie the sheep doing her part.
Part 1, Chapter 24 Summary: “Daphne”
Daphne, to her surprise, finds herself enjoying the play and singing along with the carols. Lydia thanks everyone for coming and invites them to refreshments. The manager of Starbucks, who is there, is disturbed that the food items are expired and believes he recognizes Art as the thief who has been stealing from his store. Daphne is delighted to think “[p]erhaps Art wasn’t quite so irritatingly perfect, after all. Maybe they did actually have something in common” (154). Maggie the dog bites Gavin the store manager, and Daphne enjoys that, too.
Part 1, Chapter 25 Summary: “Lydia”
While Gavin the store manager shouts and Daphne stands up to him, Lydia tries to provide a distraction by going to William’s computer and showing the gallery of pictures he’d had on the projector earlier. Instead, she opens the folder of photos William has taken of Jeremy, which include him kissing the young blonde. Lydia feels as if “her world collapsed around her” (159).
Part 1, Chapters 14-25 Analysis
Speaking to the theme of Age-Based Prejudice and Perspectives on Aging, the text offers numerous allusions to women known for being remarkable and admired, even into their mature years. Princess Margaret, Dame Maggie Smith, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth, and Dame Judi Dench are examples. Daphne clearly admires a woman in charge—which reflects on her own personality—and these are women of power and influence, which Daphne is turning out to be as she helps Ziggy and coaches Lydia. Lydia, in contrast, is a woman who has lost all confidence and sense of self, eroded by her devotion to caring for her daughters and an unappreciative husband. All of the central characters will benefit from Daphne’s instruction and support, making her the hub of her community and proving that she is active and capable even as an older woman.
Uniting the senior group with the nursery group allows Pooley to form humorous contrasts between the very different ages, at opposite ends of the human lifespan. The juxtaposition also allows her to investigate how cultural perceptions about age influence both the very young and the more mature. The adults hope to mentor and guide the young, while the young bring energy, enthusiasm, and a fresh perspective to events. Both are age groups which are not considered important by the council, as shown by their lack of interest in the nativity play and the council’s willingness to sell off the community center. Pooley plays the nativity scene for humor in showing the chaos and disruption that follows the sweet performance, but the looming threat of losing their community center for luxury housing shows how both these segments of the population are vulnerable and often dismissed.
In keeping with the rising action and increasing complication of the dramatic structure, characters are called upon in different ways to confront the problems facing them, reflecting the importance of Reinventing and Rediscovering Oneself. Art takes a small step in confronting his kleptomaniac behavior by giving away some of the items he’s stolen to the children at the nursery, whose families can afford little. This seemingly positive trajectory is complicated when he’s faced with accusations of theft from the Starbucks manager, but his overall patterns of behavior suggest that he is trying to gradually reform himself.
Meanwhile, Lydia is confronted with proof of her husband’s infidelity, and Ziggy is roped into the illegal activities of the gang in his housing development. These developments suggest that Lydia and Ziggy’s self-discovery will not be a smooth or linear process. Daphne, too, encounters obstacles to her plan when her date turns out to be boorish and boring. Having all four of her main cast hit walls in their development adds tension and conflict to Pooley’s story, especially after each character experiences a moment when things were going well, which makes the sense of loss all the more dramatic. The characters will have to rethink their strategies and redouble their efforts to reach their goals.
After a rocky start, the group is starting to form small connections to one another, showing The Importance of Social Bonds. Characters are developing partnerships, like Art and William following Jeremy for Lydia, Daphne asking William’s help in taking photographs, and Daphne helping Ziggy with Kylie. Building on the scene of deep friendship between Art and William, which shows how important such bonds are to survival, Daphne enjoys their company when she runs into the men at the pub. There is a subtle dramatic irony and tension added in that most, if not all, of the four major characters have some agenda for helping out the others. Art and Lydia are trying to win back a sense of self-respect that they’ve lost along the way. Daphne is using people for her own ends, or at least, that is what she intends, and her self-absorption provides a comic contrast to Lydia’s motives of service.
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