Coming Into the End Zone: A Memoir

I first read COMING INTO THE END ZONE maybe ten years ago, and I vaguely remember that I enjoyed it enough to send it across country to my mother, who was just over 80 at the time. Because Grumbach wrote this book about the momentousness of approaching and passing her 70th birthday; it was/is a kind of diary of meditations and musings on both the joys and sadnesses of aging and death. She rages especially at the awful scourge of AIDS which has taken so many of her close friends and colleagues and mourns their deaths. A writer of novels, stories and essays, a teacher and a long-time reviewer of books, she makes a comment I found I could easily identify with, particularly in the past few years, as I approach 65 and have begun to re-read favorite books. She says: "For so long, because reading has become for me a kind of forced labor, I am required to have an opinion about everything. I never open a book without a pencil and pad at hand, to record what I think as I go along. Now, more and more, I am determined no longer to read in that way, but to reread, slowly. To have a usable, publishable opinion no long matters to me. Enjoyment was my impetus to read, sixty-seven years ago, in the first place. I expect now to return to that simple spur." For some unknown reason, my mother, still a voracious reader today at 92, put Grumbach's book aside when I first sent it to her, and only recently finally read the book and returned it to me, apologizing for keeping it so long and praising its thoughtful musings, its wisdom. I opened it up to refresh my memory (admittedly not such an acute organ anymore), and found myself caught up in Grumbach's story once again, and ended up re-reading the whole book. Perhaps it meant even more to my 64 yr-old self than it did to who I was at 55. I was reminded also as I reread END ZONE - slowly this time - of another favorite book about the aging process, the late John Jerome's lovely memoir, On Turning Sixty-five. (I may have to re-read that one now too.) Grumbach quotes the poet Ezra pound, who, near the end of his life, told a friend, "Nothing really matters, does it?" A fatalistic, perhaps sad thing to say - and to hear. At this point in my life, I don't agree with Pound though. Good books always matter, and this is one. Doris Grumbach, as far as I know, is still around, nearly ninety now. She's another one of those people I'd like to sit and talk about books with over a cup of coffee. Since she's obviously so much better read than a bumpkin like me will ever be, I might feel a bit of an idiot, but I don't think she'd allow that. I think she'd recognize a kindred soul - another lover of books - and we'd have a jolly good chat. - Tim Bazzett, author of the REED CITY BOY trilogy

Although I had heard of Doris Grumbach before, I had never read any of her works so I was interested to find out about her.This is one of the most engrossing and thoughtful books I have read and I look forward to reading more of her work.I particularly appreciated the details of books she had read and enjoyed.After I had finished this book I reread several parts of it-the quality of writing is so good that you just don't want to leave it.This is one book that I'll keep to read again.