Spirited Women

By Andrea Sachs

Daughter. Mother. Sister. Lover. Friend. A spirited new anthology, Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty (Doubleday) takes on myths of maturing women with an impressive roster of writers. Joyce Maynard explores middle-aged dating: "The higher the income a man reports, the more likely he is to set his sights on younger women." Ellen Sussman meditates on the joys of sex: "I love sex. I love middle-age sex. I love married sex. I'm almost 50, and I've never felt sexier. But damn, it took a long time to get here." Lolly Winston shares her personal experience with in vitro fertilization: "I'm caught up in the urgency of time passing, eggs aging, chances diminishing." Lynn Freed reflects on having survived breast cancer: "A 50-year-old woman is no longer an old woman, even in our youth-mad culture. There is still life in her." And there is plenty of life in this celebration of women aging with vitality.