Late-Life Love is a unique blend of memoir and literary commentary, with Gubar at the helm as an accomplished, bravely honest and mesmerizing guide ... Theirs is a cerebral household catering to a cavalcade of friends, children and grandchildren; readers will delight in being welcomed into the fold ... Reading these analyses is like having a season ticket to a series of fascinating literary discussions.
Late-Life Love is an easier read than [Gubar's previous book] Memoir of a Debulked Woman, although there are moments when pain sears through ... Retired. Nonetheless, Gubar continues to defiantly flex her critical muscles ... Running alongside the late-life love story and the Indiana house hunt is a curriculum — discussions of a dozen and more literary texts. It’s not a nostalgic riffle through old lecture notes. Gubar rethinks ... One perceives in her rereadings what an outstanding teacher Gubar was. And, we may rejoice, still is.
Although sobering in its intimations of mortality, [Gubar's] book makes a heartwarming case not just for the sustaining joys and solace of autumnal desire and commitment but for those of literature, too. ... wins our good will from her opening line, with its characteristic blend of frankness and good humor ... doesn’t aim to be exhaustive yet borders on the overstuffed ... impressive, often heartening addition to the literature of aging.
