Sister Age

I love the autobiographical touches of this collection. My favorite story is "The Second Time Around". I had many times thought of the naive generosity that Americans exhibit in contrast to Europeans, but had never been able to put this into words, until i read this story. I did not care much for parts of the book (the ghost tales, for example), but overall it is a worthy collection and an enjoyable read.

Having read about, but not having read, any of Fisher's previous books, I looked forward to reading this collection of short stories and short essays. Her original metaphors tickle a word lover's fancy: "Her firm, rounded old face as impassive as a postcard of Krishna" and "as untroubled as a dot of plankton." In 1936 in Zurich, Fisher bought an old oil painting of a woman she dubbed Sister Age. "I was going to write about growing old. ... I was going to learn from the picture. ... I planned to think and study about the art of aging for several years, and then tell how to learn and practice it." This volume, written when she was in her 70s, is the only effort she ever made to fulfill that ambition. She makes no direct statement about aging except in her Afterword, and there the valiantly borne disappointment is clearly stated: "Our housing is to blame," she said from her loneliness and separation from her children and grandchildre! n. She blames high-rises, cost of large homes, and socioeconomic events for the phenomena of old people living alone, not being touched, not basking in the daily light of children's smiles. Fisher's stories delight and baffle from time to time, and her view of old age as a lonely time, when one has to halfheartedly figure out what to do with one's time, travels from page to lonely page. It was rather like a black comedy without a punch line.