Description
Book SynopsisIn a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age mean today?
Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin’s clear-eyed account of our middle years takes inspiration from literature and philosophy to weigh the challenges and opportunities of mid-life. It offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion.
Trade Review‘Lucid and sophisticated … A restrained but wonderful guide to the convulsive changes of 50 and over … This is a book that yields valuable insights on almost every page.’
-- Melissa Benn * The Guardian *
‘A 21st-century meditation on middle age … The Middlepause is erudite, with a lengthy list of notes and ideas for further reading, but it is also personal — part memoir, part unflinching travelogue through the unsettling physical and mental challenges of the menopause … Honest and uplifting.’
* FT *
‘Beautifully composed and intensely sympathetic,
The Middlepause: On Turning Fifty is wry, personal and intimate, while still being something of a road map for others.’ -- Viv Groskop * The Sunday Telegraph *
‘Women do a lot of things to mark turning fifty. Go to a resort! Have a bang-up party! Far, far better: read The Middlepause.’
* Jill Lepore, author of
The Secret History of Wonder Woman *
‘Emotionally honest.’
-- Tom Gatti * New Statesman *
‘We are not supposed to beguile, we the middle-aged women. But with The Middlepause, Marina Benjamin does that: she beguiles and entrances with a lyrical, thoughtful, erudite, and always lucid exploration of the middle years of her life, and what they mean to her, and what middle-aged women mean to society.’
-- Rose George, author of
The Big Necessity‘Beautifully written and so thoughtful, The Middlepause made me think about fleeting time and what is important to me. I couldn’t put it down.’
-- Amy Jenkins, author of
Honeymoon and creator of
This Life‘Renunciation, shape-shifting, ennui, sorrow: this tender and thoughtful book calls for an ‘invisible revolution’ in our attitudes to women’s ageing. In a deeply personal meditation Benjamin places body knowledge and luck alongside grieving and family history; intimate reflection with literary exemplar; communion with ghosts sadly close to the painful real. The Middlepause is a wise, lucid and beautiful plea for more candid discussion of the time-wrought transformations of the female body.’
-- Gail Jones, author of
A Guide to Berlin‘Intimate, open-hearted, clever and kind, this book is a companion which, by naming the shadow fears, finds the truer gold.’
-- Jay Griffiths, author of
Kith‘A candid and beautifully written “wrinkles and all” meditation on the middle years with all their dilemmas and challenges … [Marina Benjamin] seeks a new vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously without sentiment or delusion.’
-- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *
‘A candid look at what it means to be 50 today … Warm, wise and beautifully written.’
* Good Housekeeping *
‘This is a measured and beautifully written critique of menopause and middle age that pre-, mid-, and postmenopausal women will find eminently relatable, and that those who love and care for them will likewise appreciate.’
* Publishers Weekly *
‘Benjamin takes us into her inner world — it’s instructive, and very moving.’
-- William Leith * Evening Standard *
‘Full of insight.’
-- Eleanor Mills * Sunday Independent *
‘In The Middlepause Benjamin deftly and brilliantly examines the losses and unexpected gains she experienced in menopause. Menopause is a mind and body shift as monumental and universal as puberty, yet far less often discussed, especially in public, which is what makes Benjamin’s work here so urgently necessary.’
-- Kate Tuttle * The Los Angeles Times *
‘Benjamin takes the process of self–help thoughtfully. For starters, to recognise change, rather than deny it, is to begin to deal with it.’
-- Iain Finlayson * Saga Magazine *
‘This gentle but honest book should be standard reading for friends and loved–ones of women trying to make sense of this transitional stage in life.’
-- Sue Wright * The Malcontent *
‘The Middlepause isn't some deluding self–help book that insists middle–age is a time of great growth for us all. It’s an accurate and thoughtful assessment of the credit and debit sheet, and it remains emotionally genuine throughout … This is a thoughtful, compassionate and wise book.’
* Shiny New Books *
