Prepare for mixed emotions. Christine Coleman's first novel, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society (2005, Transita, United Kingdom, 308 pages), makes funny and enjoyable reading. But on many pages, readers may grit their teeth and squirm in discomfort.
Why? The dilemma of aging heroine Agnes Borrowdale reflects the dreary prospects that everyone may face. Juggling life's hassles when “old” takes some derring-do, maybe too much. If family members become distracted and unhelpful, what should a disgruntled senior citizen do?
“The saying that ‘life begins at 40’ doesn't go far enough,” Coleman says. “As we get older, we can gain inspiration from seeing people in their 70s and 80s rise to the challenge of new ventures.”
Long a vicar's wife, Agnes is a widow whose dead husband’s voice still advises her. Desperate to visit her grandchildren, she “runs away” from the Harmony Home for the Young at Heart, a seniors complex when her son Jack and his new lover, Monica, sent her. “No point trying to make a detailed plan.... Go with the flow was a phrase she'd always liked...”
When things go wrong, should Agnes quietly sneak back into the Harmony Home? “Absolutely not! Agnes was surprised at her own feelings of revulsion at the thought. It would be like agreeing to lie down again meekly in your own coffin after you'd escaped from being buried alive.”
Adventures ensue. Some loutish teenagers look threatening, but Agnes meets new pals too. One, Felix, a disgruntled retiree, tries to commit suicide by leaping in front of a train, but Agnes foils him with a body tackle. To distract him long-term, she spins a yarn about a Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society for disgruntled seniors to fearlessly dice with death in risky hobbies like abseiling, parachuting, rock-climbing or lion taming. “You name it, and there'll be somebody in your street dying to do it.... And of course, death always does win, eventually.”
Felix takes the notion more seriously than expected. He “was not quite sure yet about the precise nature of his feelings on the matter. They included.... irritation that he would now have to face a week’s accumulation of washing up piled in and around his kitchen sink; curiosity about this odd-looking woman who had so forcefully accosted him as he had stepped forwards to peer down at the gleaming, inviting rails; and eagerness to learn more about this Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society she was inviting him to join.”
Coleman tells a tale of character development. The initially mild-mannered Agnes soon vanishes. “Agnes was surprising herself..... Once she had scrambled down the drainpipe and out through the back gate, another Agnes seemed to be taking over, one who shocked and frightened her, but who also gave her moments of exhilaration and amazing clarity and calm.”
The author shows an enviable ability to take a light-hearted approach to serious topics like aging, death and neglect of the elderly. She stays respectful to her characters and to readers who may face the same issues.
A former high-school teacher turned novelist and poet, Coleman works part-time in a British adult-education program. Recently, she published a second novel, Paper Lanterns, about quirky people and events on Hong Kong's outlying Lamma Island.
Readers considering their own “golden” years will hope for kindness, concern and compassion like Coleman shows for the feisty Agnes. The heroine's surprising ability to cope should encourage everyone. Maybe Agnes should return in another book – even older, but still capable and inspiring.
Approval rating: 79 per cent.
For more information: www.christinecoleman.net
(April 4, 2010)
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Christine Coleman stays respectful,
even in a humorous novel.
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