How to Age Disgracefully

In assembling a cast that covers a range of ages, from an infant to adults in their 70s, Pooley takes the opportunity to interrogate and challenge perspectives on aging that are common in several Western cultures. At the same time, she confronts assumptions and prejudices about other age groups, not just seniors, showing that ageism can work across demographics.

Both Daphne and Art have encountered stereotypes associated with their perceived age, and both choose to challenge these assumptions in different ways. Daphne, for instance, encounters the retail clerk’s assumption that she doesn’t understand modern technology when she ventures out to buy a mobile phone. It’s true that Daphne is not familiar with the phone she chooses, but her interactions with OurNeighbours.com show that she’s not entirely unaware of technology. She’s perfectly capable of using the internet to find what she needs, and she’s also capable of learning to use the latest model iPhone, defying the stereotype of the senior who gets confused or hopeless about the latest gadgets. The challenge with Daphne is her obstinate personality, not her ability to learn.

Art has found, in his career as an actor and as a man of senior years, that he has become invisible. There are few opportunities for acting roles, and most available ones limit him in some way, either as a murder victim or an older person with dementia. He is no longer seen as a man of vigor and confidence, like Lydia’s husband, Jeremy; instead; staff in stores simply overlook him. His stealing is in part in defiance of this oversight: As Daphne suggests, if people are going to make judgments about him, he may as well use this to his personal advantage.

One of Pooley’s strategies is to comically exaggerate stereotypes. Anna, with her aggressive driving on her mobility scooter, is one example. Anna, like Daphne, is a woman who refuses to be invisible because of her age. However, invisibility doesn’t only impact seniors, as Lydia, too, is experiencing the sense of having disappeared in her own life. Her daughters no longer require her for childcare, and her husband shows no regard for her feelings. Lydia faces the common assumptions that women of middle-age are less necessary to their families when their function as a carer is completed. Pooley challenges this assumption too, again through Daphne, who tells Lydia she is at the height of her powers and should use them. While she may no longer have the youth and beauty that are valued by self-absorbed men like Jeremy, Lydia has skills, confidence, and wisdom she can employ. Lydia learns to see the new phase of her life as offering new opportunities and renewed independence, rather than dwindling away.

Ziggy, too, encounters prejudices against his age. As he is a teen, others assume he is too young to be a responsible parent. His peers at school distance themselves because he doesn’t fit the typical mold, as exemplified by Jenna, of being reckless and irresponsible. Like the older adults, Ziggy also has to prove that he is capable. The example of Lucky, the foster child with a difficult past, further shows that people can encounter significant obstacles at any age, but also learn to overcome them.

On the whole, with her lively characters with friendships across age groups, Pooley shows that age-related prejudices are generally inaccurate. The novel suggests that enjoyment of life—and hope for a better future—doesn’t belong to any particular age group.