The New Old Me: My Late-Life Reinvention

(Paperback)

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"A funny, seasoned take on dashed illusions."-O Magazine "I love everything Meredith Maran writes. She is insightful, funny, and human, and the things she writes about matter to me deeply. Her memoir,The New Old Me,is a book I don't just want to read-I need to read it. So does everyone else who's getting older and wants to live fully, with immediacy and enjoyment, which is to say, everyone."-Anne Lamott,author ofHallelujah Anyway For readers of Anne Lamott, Abigail Thomas, and Ayelet Waldman comes one woman'slusty, kickass,post-divorce memoir of starting over at 60 in youth-obsessed, beauty-obsessed Hollywood. After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life's savings, andthe collapse of her once-happy marriage,Meredith Maran leaves herSan Franciscofreelance writer's life for a 9-to-5 job in Los Angeles. Determined to rebuild not only her savings but also herself while relishing the joys of life inLa-La land,Maran writes "a poignant story, a funny story, a moving story, and above all an American story of what it means to be a woman of a certain age in our time"(Christina Baker Kline, number-oneNew York Times-bestselling author ofOrphan Train). Praise for The New Old Me- "High time we had a book that celebrates becoming an elder! Meredith Maran writes of the difficulties of loss and change and aging, but makes it clear that getting on can be more interesting, more fun, and a lot more exciting than youth."-Abigail Thomas,author of theNew York TimesbestsellerWhat Comes Next and How to Like It "By turns poignant and funny, the book not only shows how one feisty woman coped with a 'Plan B life' she didn't want or expect with a little help from her friends. It also celebrates how she transformed uncertainty into a glorious opportunity for continued late-life personal growth. A spirited and moving memoir about how 'it's never too late to try something new.'"-Kirkus

Reviews

A funny, seasoned take on dashed illusions.
O Magazine

By turns poignant and funny, the book not only shows how one feisty woman coped with a Plan B life she didn't want or expect with a little help from her friends. It also celebrates how she transformed uncertainty into a glorious opportunity for continued late-life personal growth. A spirited and moving memoir about how it's never too late to try something new.
Kirkus

Well-written and smart.
Elinor Lipman, Washington Post

When writer Marans idyllic Bay Area life falls apart, she picks herself up and set out to start overalone in youth-obsessed Los Angeles, at age 60. Inspiring.
People

Memoir at its finesta patient, funny, open look at a series of life-altering eventsMarans words are genuine, and her story strikes a deep emotional chord.
Lamda Literary

With wit, hard-won insight and wisdom, memoirist Meredith Maran details how her life came apart when she was 60 years old and how, over a period of three years, she attempted to put it back together.
Shelf Awareness

I love everything Meredith Maran writes. She is insightful, funny, and human, and the things she writes about matter to me deeply. Her memoir,The New Old Me,is a book I dont just want to readI need to read it. So does everyone else whos getting older and wants to live fully, with immediacy and enjoyment, which is to say, everyone.
Anne Lamott,author ofHallelujah Anyway

Meredith Maran's memoir about her recent experiences navigating life's sudden shifts and tilts and swerves, is funny, tough, sweet, and always charming.
Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings

When Meredith Maran lost her best friend, her money, and her marriage at age 60, she could have thrown in the towel, or gone to bed for a year, or become a bitter, angry woman. Instead she made a new, vibrant life for herself in a new, vibrant city, with a new job, new friends, new lovers, and an old bungalow among the lime trees, which she transformed into a writers haven and salon. The spirit, resilience, and hilarity on display inThe New Old Meoffers hope for living soulfully and zestfully no matter what life gives usnow, and at every age.
Ayelet Waldman,author ofBad Mother

The best memoirs keep you enthralled and leave you thinking.The New Old Medoes both. Meredith Marans wrenching but redemptive journey is a heartfelt, wise meditation on the challenges women face today as we age, and the creativity with which were facing them. This is a stirring and captivating must-read for humans of all ages.
Susan Orlean,author of The Orchid Thief

The New Old Me is a poignant story, a funny story, a moving story, and above all an American story of what it means to be a woman of a certain age in our time. If youve ever wondered where have all the bra-burners gone, Meredith Maran will answer your question as she reinvents herself at age 60in Hollywood, of all places. Any woman whos ever wondered what life might hold as a modern senior citizen will find much to challenge and reassure her in this absorbing, beautiful book.
Christina Baker Kline, author ofOrphan Train

How does Meredith Maran do it How does she know my secret fears about aging, my not-so-secret flaws Meredith's life-changing writing draws me in and makes me root for her, root for myself, root for all of us who have only two choices: get older or die. I depend on her hopeful, horrible, hilariously heartfelt dispatches from the future (she's just a wee bit older than I). If anyone finds the fountain of youth, Meredith deserves the first sip.
Annabelle Gurwitch, author ofI See You Made An Effort

High time we had a book that celebrates becoming an elder! Meredith Maran writes of the difficulties of loss and change and aging, but makes it clear that getting on can be more interesting, more fun, and a lot more exciting than youth. I love this wonderful book.
Abigail Thomas,author ofWhat Comes Next and How To Like It

Meredith Marans soulful, funny, beautiful memoir is a refreshing inspiration to me. Im ten years younger than she is, wondering whats up ahead. Merediths voice is exuberant, lusty, kickass, full of life. She is my new role model for getting older without getting old. She blazes a trail for us all, showing humans of all ages how to create joy and community for ourselves while maintaining a sense of humor, wonder, and curiosity. This book is a godsend. Hooray!
Kate Christensen, author ofThe Great Man

I might have forgotten to breathe for the entirety of reading these pages, some of the very finest writing I've read in a long time. What you have here is a universal experience -- love and loss, dreams and aging, the heartless indifference of the universe to the securities we so innocently weave around ourselves -- distilled through the singular sensibility of an exceptional storyteller and dramatist. Meredith Maran's question is the cruelest one of them all: How do we mend ourselves after we have been broken It is a blessing to have among us a writer of this caliber to guide us to the painful, heartbreaking answers. Books are our most intimate and acute means of communication, John Cheever said. If you want to know what he meant, read this book.
Boris Fishman, author ofA Replacement Life

Meredith Maran tackles change inThe New Old Me.Like many women who can get the senior discount at the movies, Maran found herselfin a very different life than the one shed imagined for herself at 60.
Anne Hood, Parademagazine

Meredith Marans hilarious memoir gives hope for late-life reinvention. I love this book!
Annie L. Scholl, TheHuffington Post

FormerSan Francisco Chroniclebook reviewer MeredithMarans post-divorce memoir,The New Old Me, followsher move from the city to Los Angeles as she attempts to start life over again at60.
Ian A. Stewart, San Francisco Magazine

Author Bio

Like a lot of women her age,MEREDITH MARANhas a hard time believing she's a woman of her age. And yet she's published more than a dozen books, includingThe New Old Me,Why We Write About Ourselves,Why We Write,MyLie, andA Theory of Small Earthquakes. When she's not hiking Mount Hollywood, attending readings at indie bookstores, or scouring Los Angeles' finest thrift shops, she's writing for venues includingThe New York Times,The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Review of Books,The Rumpus,andSalon. The grateful recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo and a member of the National Book Critics Circle, Meredith lives in a Silver Lake bungalow that's even older than she is.