BELLOWS FALLS — Author Jane Buchan presents a reading of her book, “Under the Moon,” at the Rockingham Free Public Library on Thursday, June 26, at 4:30 p.m. A discussion follows.
“Under the Moon” is set in a retirement home in the early 1980s in Toronto. A program announcement explains that Edna, the novel's protagonist, “is an artist who has abandoned her art, and herself, at least temporarily. She hates the conformity and standardization of retirement home living but is stuck in a pattern of immature rebellion until a shocking event leads her to understand the unsavory truth of what it means to be old in a culture that fears death and hates old age.”
First published by McClelland & Stewart in 1983, Buchan's novel exposes what advance materials describe as “the horrifying conditions found in many long-term-care facilities.” It also explores how people of all ages participate in the transformation of the medical model that casts old age as a disease to be treated rather than a stage of life to be joyfully lived.
With so many baby boomers retiring, Buchan says she believes the time has come to address ageism in our culture once again, and offers “Under the Moon” as a catalyst for individuals and groups to become involved in transforming our culture's beliefs about what it means to grow old.