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What’s the key to the art of growing older well? Is it an art that anyone can cultivate? How should we confront dying and death in a secular age? What about sex when we’re older? What about loneliness? (And, for that matter, what about facelifts?)
At the height of his powers in this remarkable (and often witty) book, Robert Dessaix addresses these increasingly urgent questions in inimitable prose and comes up with some surprising answers. From Java to Hobart via Berlin, Dessaix invites us to eavesdrop on his intimate, no-nonsense conversations about ageing with friends and chance acquaintances.
Reflecting on time, religion, painting, dancing and even grandchildren, Dessaix takes us on an enlivening journey across the landscape of growing older. Riffing on writers and thinkers from Plato to Eva Hoffman, he homes in on the crucial importance of a rich inner life.
The Time of Our Lives is a wise and timely exploration of not just the challenges but also the many possibilities of old age.
Author: Robert Dessaix
Paperback Published 1 November 2020 256 pages
Originally published in hardcover 24 September 2020
‘Dessaix writes with great elegance, with passion, compassion and sly wit’ —John Banville
‘Dessaix’s voice and literary personality are unique in contemporary Australian letters’ —The Sydney Morning Herald
‘The pleasure and elegance of all Dessaix’s writing is in the language, the erudition, the delicate, often unexpected and lovely connections, and the intimate conversational voice’ —The Weekend Australian