Hypertext Magazine asked Madeleine Kunin, author of COMING OF AGE: MY JOURNEY TO THE EIGHTIES, “what makes your book different from other books on aging?”
This is a very personal book that reveals my changing emotions as I grow older. It is as if I had opened a door, walked through it, and discovered that I could write more intimately. When I was in public life as a governor and ambassador I had to sift my words through a sieve, screening out any words that might offend or cause harm. Unknowingly, I was shrink-wrapped. Now, it was safe to tear off the cellophane and emerge as an old woman who still loved life.
I could write about my changing body, and mind. And my close family who have died, including my brother, my mother and father. Thinking about them made me probe deeper into how they influenced me as a sister and daughter. I don’t know exactly how I did it, but I went into a reflective zone, partly because now I had more time. I could not have written this book when I was caught in the fast tempo of my public life. I needed to have space to think.
In one sense this is a love story about me and John. We found each other when I was seventy-one and he was seventy-nine. It was a magical marriage. We were close. I also write about loss, experiencing John’s slow decline.
The book includes both poetry and prose. I discovered that I had become a poet, a new title for me, which I love to tag on to the others—politician, diplomat, mother, wife. The major distinction of this book from other books on aging is that it is not a “how to book.” It is a reflective book that touches on how one woman thinks and lives as she grows old.
Governor Kunin has written three previous books: Living a Political Life (Knopf), and The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family (New York Times Editor’s Choice) and Pearls Politics and Power. She has more energy than two 40-year-olds. She is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont, where she gives guest lectures on feminism and women and politics. She also serves on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991, and she recently launched Emerge Vermont to encourage and support women in politics. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont. View Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties HERE.