In Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations About Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles, & Regret, Martha Nussbaum and Saul Levmore offer a group of essays on, well, just what the title indicates. The title is intriguing and the perspective of two authors from seemingly disparate disciplines (law and philosophy) piqued my interest. The notion of the give and take of a conversation about ageing seemed to me an interesting and fresh literary device. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to its title or my expectations. Less a conversation, Nussbaum and Levmore tackle a wide variety of topics in side-by-side essays, some of which briefly reference each other's work, other's not. Starting with the opening essay where Nussbaum discusses such wide-ranging topics as King Lear and de Beauvoir's On Aging, she takes a stance that it is dangerous to generalise about ageing. The book would have profited if Nussbaum had followed her own critique. Retirement, bodies, friends, assessing one's past history, romance and sex, inequality and altruism are covered in her succeeding essays. A classic liberal, Nussbaum champions the perspective and equity perspective. Levmore, on the other hand, holds a more conservative position, arguing for mandatory retirement and the ‘purposes’ of friendship. Other of his essays cover such topics as: distributing inheritance; wrinkles and aesthetic surgery; retirement communities; summer/winter romances; and inequality and social security reform. Disappointingly, the essays, by and large, are pitched to a more well-heeled group of older people with primarily middle-class sensibilities.

The authors open with the invitation to ‘self-knowledge’, stating that they are hoping to ‘set an example in this regard’ (p. 2). They also state that their hope is that the book will inspire ‘meaningful conversations’ about ageing with family members and others. Informed self-knowledge is essential for meaningful conversation. The book would have been more useful in that regard if the authors had taken some time to invest in a cursory review of gerontological literature. Levmore's emphasis on a decline narrative is carried out throughout the text and touched on in each of the sections he has authored. Nussbaum's essays are more wide-reaching, and she appears to step away from notions of ageing that feature the inevitability of loss and physical decline. Or, that is what appeared to be the case until the very last paragraph of the book where she states: ‘But aging does risk bringing us all to a second childhood’ (p. 234).

A cursory reading of Maggie Kuhn might have caused her to question making such a statement. Nussbaum's essays appear to be more informed than Levmore's; however, they still suffer from a lack of a grounded understanding of ageing. A brief read-through of some of Laura Carstensen's research, for instance, might have shed some light on meaningful ageing. Levmore's essays were more problematic; and a basic look at, for example, the critical work of Christopher Philipson and/or Debora Price might have shifted Levmore's reliance on his ‘intuition’ (a word he used repeatedly) and grounded his work in informed self-knowledge.

That said, some of the essays where Nussbaum employs a philosophical basis for understanding are fascinating. Her essays on age and friendship, and her human capabilities approach are thought provoking. The ‘aging and human capabilities’ list (p. 197) is a social justice map that addresses inequalities within an ageing demographic. Nussbaum's discussion of altruism is engaging but does suffer from a brief and somewhat confusing section where she discusses death and fear. She conflates fear of death on the battlefield with mortality and ageing. Again, an informed view of some of the more recent work on death (Tony Walter, the Death Cafes or my own writing) would have been useful. Levmore's suggestions for strengthening the American social security system are equally important. The restructuring, he suggests, would go some way in redressing the economic inequity many ageing people currently experience within American society. It is here where the authors really shine. As a reader, I had hoped to find such cogent arguments and information in each section of the book. That said, there are arresting nuggets throughout the book – the critique of de Beauvoir, calls for humility and humour when it comes to one's outlook on ageing, questions about the orthodoxy of dividing inheritance equally and their interesting take on ageing romance are examples of areas that the authors touched on that caught my attention. Though the authors write in a readable, accessible style that will speak well to a general audience, Nussbaum and Levmore repeat the sad and, frankly, depressing narrative of age as somehow a time of unremitting loss or a ‘second childhood’. Unfortunately, Aging Thoughtfully is not a book that provides a rich and wide-ranging narrative as a starting point for informed meaningful conversations.