Purely by chance I found a most interesting book on my library's shelves. I always think I must surely have plundered those shelves of all their little gems by now, but there are many treasures, it seems, yet to be discovered. I checked this one out and have since ordered a copy. I am a pushover for those Virago Modern Classics short story anthologies and I had never come across this one before.
Honestly, a few years back had I seen a book about 'aging' I would have snubbed it and slid it back on the shelf. But I find myself at a transitional point in life. I feel really young, but my age challenges those feelings sometimes. Now when I pick up a book with a heroine of 'a certain age' I am not so quick to put it back down again. I feel like now I can reach for books on both sides of the aisle--young and old. So, why not a collection like this, Singing in Tune with Time: Stories and Poems about Ageing edited by Elizabeth Cairns.
The collection was published in 1993, the cover illustration a painting detail by Sir James Herbert Gunn, "Pauline in the McLeod tartan'. As I eagerly await my own copy I have been perusing this one. And if I can carve out just a little extra (extra?) reading time I am starting with a story by a favorite author, Susan Hill. The story is called "A Bit of Singing and Dancing' and the opening caught my attention. Perhaps different circumstances, but like the narrator I find myself on my own (more or less) and I can appreciate these sentiments.
"There was no one else on the beach so late in the afternoon. She walked very close to the water, where there was a rim of hard, flat sand, easier on her feet than the loose shelves of shingle, which folded one on top of the other, up to the storm wall. She thought, I can stay out here just as long as I like, I can do anything I choose, anything at all, for now I am answerable only to myself."
In the case of the narrator, her mother has passed away, and I suspect she had spent years caring for her, doing without to make her mother's life more comfortable. In my case, I was at one time in an unhappy marriage, went through a difficult breakup and now appreciate being beholden only to myself. It has taken a while to be happy in the situation and see it as a freedom but there are moments of feeling pure relief in the solitude I have earned.
" . . . And a small thrill went through her as she realized that that, too, was entirely up to her [an evening of a banked up fire and TV entertainment], she could watch whichever programme she chose, or not watch any at all. There had not been an evening for the past eleven years when the television stayed off and there was silence to hear the ticking of the clock and the central heating pipes."
Indeed there are benefits to being along and choosing to be just as I like. I am only at the start of the story so am curious to see how it works out and if she is as happy with her situation as time goes on or if her feelings will change, and her situation with it. Such a treat to find this book hidden away. And more, I hope there are still many more books for me to find tucked away on those shelves.
By the way the collection contains more than two dozen stories and poems. I recognize many authors--Penelope Lively, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, and Edna O'Brien. But even more there are many writers I will soon get to discover--Daphne Glazer, Mary Cowan, Marion Molteno and Ismat Chugtai.
An unplanned read (but short stories are always welcome), but sometimes those are the best ones!