Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

by Abigail Thomas

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life, a witty and irreverent look at aging and the writing life, delivered with trademark brevity, humor, and wise wit.

“The Emily Dickinson of memoirists” (Stephen King) Abigail Thomas shares her thoughts on aging in this irresistibly wry memoir-in-vignettes—offering richly insightful writing tips along the way.

While reflecting on the past, Abby accepts the shape of her present. No more driving, no more dancing, mostly sitting in a comfortable chair in a sunny corner with three dogs for company—as well as the birds and other critters that she watches out her window. Only this beloved writer could generate so much enthusiasm over what might seem so little. Vivid memories fall like confetti, as time contracts, shoots forward, loops and suddenly she is back in her twenties in New York City, drinking, sleeping with strangers, falling in and out of love, believing in a better world. Sometimes dread or grief arrives, inhabits her body like a shadow, and all she can do is write it away, paying close attention to what catches her eye, sticks in her brain, keeps her in the moment.

Whether you’re a book lover, dog lover—or both—pull up a chair, pour a cup of tea, and enter Abigail Thomas’s quietly mesmerizing world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668054659
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	11/19/2024
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Abigail Thomas worked as both a book editor and book agent before writing her first short story collection, Getting Over Tom. Her second and third books An Actual Life, and Herb's Pajamas, were works of fiction. Her memoir, A Three Dog Life, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. She is also author of the memoirs Safekeeping, Thinking About Memoir, and What Comes Next and How to Like It. The daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell), Thomas has four children, twelve grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. She lives in Woodstock, New York, with her dogs.

Read an Excerpt

YOU KNOW YOU'RE OLD
When you email a friend about a change in your blood pressure because you know she will be just as interested as you are. When you check your watch to see how long you have to lie in bed until morning. When nothing embarrasses you. When you understand you are breakable by breaking. When you forget what you’ve forgotten. When at your yearly checkup they ask you to count backwards by sevens. One hundred, ninety-three, eighty-six. When you no longer drop everything to answer the phone just because it is ringing. When you don’t wonder what you’re missing. When you can’t remember the last time you felt guilty. When you stop trying  to fix people. When you find the moment roomy enough to live in. When you relish your own company. When you don't mind repeating yourself. When you see a young woman with her whole life in front of her, and your first thought is  think  thank god that isn't me. Seventy-nine, seventy-two, sixty-five, fifty-eight. But you wish her well.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Still Life at Eighty
“Still Life at Eighty is a little jewel box of a book, full of epiphanies that are comforting and merciless in the gentlest possible way. Both a series of meditations and a user’s manual about growing old, I was amazed by its clarity and very grateful to read it. Even the title, with its deliberate ambiguity, is a very cool thing.” —Stephen King

“A wry, witty memoir that flits between memories and the present and proves that growing old doesn’t have to mean fading away. Next time a loved one complains they're 'too old' for something, hand them this book.” —People

“A brilliant exploration of the writer’s accumulated wisdom, dogged curiosity, and breathtaking honesty... Thomas’s voice is as powerful as ever, a beautiful instrument with which to sing both sad and happy songs.” —Boston Globe

“A clear-eyed examination of aging. This exquisite slim volume, encapsulating a lifetime of lessons learned, is meant to be savored.” —Real Simple

“Full of hard-won perspective—and humor—Still Life at Eighty is perfect for May Sarton and Anne Lamott fans.” —Shelf Awareness, “Best Books of the Week”

“Reflections on aging from a master of the fresh and moving fragment... Thomas is always fun, smart, thoughtful, and pithy, modestly trying not to take up too much of your time... her candor is a gift to us all.” —Kirkus, starred review

"Insightful, self-aware, and still feisty... she’s doing what she does best, putting it all on the page to share with readers." —Booklist

“A tender look at aging and memory... Like the slow-blooming wisteria vine growing from Thomas’s desk that reappears throughout the narrative, the power of her remembrances emerges gradually, but they join together to form a beautiful whole.” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for Abigail Thomas
“Beautifully written...wry...resilient. Her mature bones may not be all that flexible but her topics and sentences flip and cartwheel with the greatest of ease.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

“Irreverent, wise, and boundlessly generous.” —Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

"I want to grow old the way Abigail Thomas is growing old—with grace and with, humor and honest, dogs and dear friends.” —Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"I would follow Abigail Thomas on any journey she ever takes. The arrival of a new book from this master is always a cause for celebration, because I know right away that I'm about to learn something important about the art of writing and the art of living, both. I come to her books as though to a feast, and leave fulfilled and transformed.” —Elizabeth Gilbert

“Abigail Thomas is the Emily Dickinson of memoirists, and so much of this book's wisdom is between the lines and in the white spaces. It may only take you two days to read, but the impact will stay with you for a long, long time. Abigail Thomas fills memory with living breath.” —Stephen King

“This may be the most honest book I've ever read, by one of the most beautiful writers I know— dizzyingly truthful, often funny, lyrical, wise.” —Anne Lamott

“It's so very rare for a memoir to tell the naked truth about aging—its terrors and its treasures, its indignities and its mysteries. Who else but Abigail Thomas to lift the veil and show us how she is navigating her eighties. Here she is, sitting still in her chair, traveling on a river that flows both ways—backwards slowly on the tides of memory, forward at a fast clip onward toward the open ocean. And sometimes, because of friends, because of dogs, because of children and home, writing and a wisteria vine, time stands still, and life is life, Abigail is Abigail, and once again we get to marvel with her, wonder with her, laugh and cry and rage with her. Thank you, Abigail, for the potent words to get us all through.” —Elizabeth Lesser

From the Publisher

★ 2024-09-14
Reflections on aging from a master of the fresh and moving fragment.

“I love the word ‘fragment.’ It has a jagged quality,” Thomas announces in her latest assemblage of short vignettes, a form she first used in her much-loved memoirSafekeeping(2000). They are grouped in four sections: “Being This Old,” “Stay-at-Home Order,” “Wisteria,” and “A Few Thoughts About Writing.” If you’ve read other works on the theme, you may agree that when a writer feels compelled to squeeze a book out of “being this old,” it is not always a good thing. Thomas proves a delightful exception, offering reflections on the sedentary life she leads in Woodstock, New York, alone with her dogs, various visiting insects and creatures, and occasional drive-bys from her children and friends. Even when writing about wasps, word etymologies, using a coffee cup as an ashtray, and other random minutiae, she is always fun, smart, thoughtful, and pithy, modestly trying not to take up too much of your time. Some instances of repetition (the same writing prompt twice—on the other hand, it’s a good one) can be forgiven as can enough-already ruminations on the frustrations of lockdown, more than made up for by the myriad freshly turned phrases and pearls of existential wisdom. Though she includes a few sections recalling escapades of her halcyon youth, she’s fairly sure she’s forgotten more than she remembers and decides to “think of my failing memory as an achievement. I am finally living in the moment.” She faces the eventuality of death with frankness and a stiff upper lip, hopeful that when she does go she won’t get that “funny feeling” when you realize you’ve left the house with some important task undone. Given this fine little book, she should not.

Thomas is still smokin’—in both senses of the word!—and her candor is a gift to us all.

Kirkus Reviews

I want to grow old the way Abigail Thomas is growing old—with grace and humor and dogs and dear friends."

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Irreverent, wise, and boundlessly generous."

Vanity Fair