JUNE 18, 2008
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 NONFICTION: Assisted Loving |
If you get your news at 6:30 every night from Brian, Charlie or Katie — and patiently sit through all the pharmaceutical ads — then you’re well aware that men are staying active (nudge, nudge) much later in life than ever before. Which can be a mental path you’d just as soon avoid if you don’t relish thoughts of your parents in that way (and if you do, ew).
In his sweetly comic Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad, Bob Morris writes about being an accomplice to his widowed 80-year-old father’s return to the dating scene. The odds are stacked in Joe Morris’s favor — greatly outnumbered by women, any senior gentleman is considered a catch if he still drives at night. Morris the younger smartly counterpoints the amusing senior moments with tales of his own search for love in New York City. A disquieting and unfortunate jacket photo (that ain’t actually Joe) belies the book’s thoughtful tone and message. Look beyond it — as the author does when confronted by the sight of his lonely father nuzzling the neck of an 86-year-old dame: “It’s not pretty. But in a way, it’s just beautiful.”
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an excerpt from Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad
Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad (Harper; hardcover; 304 pages)
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