Here is a book to make grandparents dance, written by one of the most charming writers alive. Eileen Simpson, the noted psychotherapist and author of Orphans, Reversals, and Poets in Their Youth, open-mindedly explores the question of what makes for success in late marriages.

Based on her interviews with fifty men and women, the simple answer comes very close to being "All you need is love." Nonetheless, in middle and old age, love comes with a difference, whether or not it involves parents, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, financial woes, or bad news. There is, in fact, little bad news in this book.

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The young think of marriages between older people as sexless, but what do they know? Such marriages can be among the best relationships we ever have. Simpson discovers that in an era of increased life expectancy and improved health, late marriages are often surprisingly erotic, though love still comes before sex. Many older people return to long-lost lovers from their youth, while some yearn to find a different kind of partner from their first or early flames.

Simpson explores where and how new couples decide to live and suggests ways of dealing with possessions and money, adult children and grandchildren, and crises arising from infidelity and separation. Finally, she looks at how aging couples face the inevitable future.

1. Readers of all ages - married people of all ages - will find in this book a heartening and convincing endorsement of the way to live happily ever after.