The View From 80

by Malcolm Cowley

Eloquently and wittily reports on "the country of age" by a man in his ninth decade, sharing numerous reflections, anecdotes, and quotations as "principal monuments" of his lifelong journey to old age

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography

74 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Malcolm Cowley was an American novelist, poet, literary critic, and journalist. Cowley is also recognized as one of the major literary historians of the twentieth century, and his Exile's Return, is one of the most definitive and widely read chronicles of the 1920s.

Cowley was one of the dozens of creative literary and artistic figures who migrated during the 1920s to Paris and congregated in Montparnasse. He lived in France for three years, where he worked with notables such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, E. E. Cummings and others. He is usually regarded as representative of America's Lost Generation.

As a consulting editor for Viking Press, Cowley notably championed the work and advanced the careers of the post-World War I writers who sundered tradition and fostered a new era in American literature. He was the one who rescued writers such as William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald from possible early oblivion and who discovered John Cheever and goaded him to write. Later Cowley championed such uncommon writers as Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey

His extraordinarily creative and prolific writing career spanned nearly 70 years, and he continued to produce essays, reviews and books well into his 80's.

Reviews

[Kuszma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Azt vettem észre, a gyermekkor sokkal inkább foglalkoztatja az írókat, mint az öregség. Ami nyilván nem csoda - gyermekkora minden írónak van, időskora meg maximum lesz, de erre meg nem szeretnek gondolni. Cowley viszont - lévén nyolcvan éves - úgy véli, akár meg is írhatná, milyen ez a holdbéli táj.

Fontos tudnivaló, hogy Cowley nem számba veszi a múltat, hanem látleletet írna a pillanatnyi állapotról. Következésképpen a szöveg nem dinamikus eseményfűzér, hanem statikus elmélkedés. Konklúzióját talán az általa említett képpel lehet legjobban ábrázolni, ami szerint az öregség olyan, mint hajótöröttnek lenni egy lakatlan szigeten: az ember örül, hogy eddig megúszta a vihart, de várja a következőt. Ebben a metaforában benne van némi csendes fatalizmus, ugyanakkor az óvatos remény is - hogy a fennmaradt időt akár hasznosan is eltölthetjük. Cowley-t idézve:

"Az öregkorban megvan az a kiváltságunk - amely néha álmatlan éjszakák kínjává válik -, hogy ítéletet mondhatunk saját szereplésünkről. De mielőtt kimondanánk az ítéletet, ki kell bogoznunk a darab cselekményét."

Finoman kidolgozott szöveg - de talán túl finom is. Azon gondolkodtam olvasás közben, hogy vajon erősebben hatna-e rám, ha jobban érintve érezném magam - nos, talán, ezt nyilván nem tudhatom. Ám nekem per pillanat túl levegős volt, túl lágy: kedvvel időzött el a súlytalan általánosságokon, nagy tudással formálta azokat tetszetős struktúrákba, de nem ment bele a kínzó konkrétumokba. Van hiányérzetem a kötettel kapcsolatban - mindenesetre elolvasom majd nyolcvan évesen is, hátha akkor jobban tetszik.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm Cowley was an American homme de lettres and an important literary figure in the mid twentieth century. He was an editor, literary historian, essayist and the most important chronicler of the "Lost Generation". He also wrote this thin volume, one of at least 7 books he finished after the age of 70.

I first read this book in 1984. Though I was a young man then, I had already as a teenager been interested in the end of life - an experience we must all deal with - and as a budding youth I was going to face everything head on... I must give that young person a smile of encouraging approval now. I was sufficiently taken by the book in 1984 that I kept it through the many moves from city to city and from country to country I have made since then.

Cowley writes in his Foreward: "Apparently a great deal had been written about old age, but most of the authors who dealt with it were lads and lassies, as it seemed to me, in their late fifties and sixties. They knew the literature but not the life." Now that I am one of the "lads" I may still not know the life (hints of it are definitely appearing), but my father has turned 90 (he married late for his generation, as he was distracted by a little thing called the Second World War) and my mother 83, so I am getting rather closely acquainted...

Although some do not reach old age, I have recently read that the "life expectancy" of an American male is 83, and for women a few more years, and even more for persons living in healthier countries (which, according to recent world health surveys, is all of the rest of the "First World"). This past week I read of the decease in Japan of the then "oldest living person" at the age of 114 - Heaven forbid!!! So, let's face it, most of us should be interested in the view from 80.

Cowley could have taken many tacks in this book, but he chose a direct, almost homely approach (motivated, I presume, by the fact that this book is based on an article commissioned by Life magazine, which for decades was the monthly with the largest circulation in the country). One should not read this book expecting profundity; but there are many truths, wry humor and even the occasional touch of wisdom.

I absolutely must close with the following striking passage, which Cowley quotes from Florida Scott-Maxwell's The Measure of My Days , written in her 83rd year: "We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience, almost beyond our capacity at times, but something to be carried high. If it is a long defeat it is also a victory, meaningful for the initiates of time, if not for those who have come less far."

[atom_box Evan G · Rating 2 out of 5]

The foreword was sort of interesting but I quickly lost interest in the essay itself.

[Max Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a 1976 copyright date, this book remains relevant. With that said, I prefer Donald Hall's Essays at 80

[Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to read just as you retire. It will make you think. There were some dry spots to push through.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterfully direct and thought-provoking, inevitably poignant, and, above all, elegant meditation on aging.

[Paulette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet. "Nobody, man or woman, knows the country until he has lived in it and taken out his citizenship papers."