How to Age Disgracefully

“Recently she’d had the feeling that the walls were closing in on her, that eventually she’d be mashed, together with all her furniture, into a tiny cube.”

After 15 years of living as a virtual recluse in her apartment, Daphne’s feelings of being trapped in her life are conveyed by this image of her living space shrinking. Daphne’s birthday is the inciting event that encourages her to seek social engagement and The Importance of Social Bonds, thus beginning the action of the book and its themes of connection.

“They’d play gently competitive games of bingo and spend happy hours collaborating over giant jigsaw puzzles.”

Lydia’s expectations of what activities she will plan for the senior social club proves an ironic contrast to the activities the group actually undertakes, challenging Age-Based Prejudice and Perceptions of Aging. As a woman reaching menopause, Lydia also faces a new phase of life in a different way than the children and seniors, providing a new perspective on the theme of aging.

“It was fair to say that Lydia’s first day back in paid employment in twenty years had not been an unmitigated success.”

This dry understatement is Lydia’s observation at her first meeting of the social club, when a collapsing ceiling kills Pauline. It is an example of the type of humor that Pooley employs throughout the novel. Pauline’s death is handled lightly, while the larger concern about repairing the social center becomes the motivation that unites the characters. This passage also reflects the starting point of Lydia’s character arc, in which she is uncertain of herself and her abilities.