--- product_id: 27038697 title: "Old Age: A Beginner's Guide" price: "€ 38.34" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.at/products/27038697-old-age-a-beginners-guide store_origin: AT region: Austria --- # Old Age: A Beginner's Guide **Price:** € 38.34 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Old Age: A Beginner's Guide - **How much does it cost?** € 38.34 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.at](https://www.desertcart.at/products/27038697-old-age-a-beginners-guide) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Vanity Fair columnist Michael Kinsley escorts his fellow Boomers through the door marked "Exit." The notorious baby boomers—the largest age cohort in history—are approaching the end and starting to plan their final moves in the game of life. Now they are asking: What was that all about? Was it about acquiring things or changing the world? Was it about keeping all your marbles? Or is the only thing that counts after you’re gone the reputation you leave behind? In this series of essays, Michael Kinsley uses his own battle with Parkinson’s disease to unearth answers to questions we are all at some time forced to confront. “Sometimes,” he writes, “I feel like a scout from my generation, sent out ahead to experience in my fifties what even the healthiest Boomers are going to experience in their sixties, seventies, or eighties.” This surprisingly cheerful book is at once a fresh assessment of a generation and a frequently funny account of one man’s journey toward the finish line. “The least misfortune can do to make up for itself is to be interesting,” he writes. “Parkinson’s disease has fulfilled that obligation.” Review: Should or shouldn't we share this with twin sons recovering from brain tumor operations? - If one reads this book as I just did, it strikes me as appealing to several level of abstraction. On one level, it relates some humorous experiences of the author after he decided to go public with news of his Parkinson's disease. There are pros and cons, of course. But it's still a good read, regardless. At my level, it speaks to the experiences we've had with young identical twin sons who had identical brain tumors removed. My wife and I have never discussed with them their post-operation experiences and attitudes. I assume they're similar to Kinsley's, but they are both living normal (so far as we can tell, anyway) productive lives and we feel it would be an unwanted intrusion to inquire. The question for the jury: should we make them aware of this book or even send them copies? Answer: We don't think so. It would be the equivalent of doing what we've avoided so far--intruding. Review: Very Funny, Oddly Comforting - Mr. Kinsley has sent us a scout's report on the Boomer Generation's last frontier -- old age and death. Having been diagnosed with Parkinson's before he was 50, Mr. Kinsley has already experienced much of what most of the rest of his generation will have to face in their rapidly approaching 70's and 80's. He reports on how someone with a serious illness moves suddenly into a different category; the sick as opposed to the well, no matter how well you may feel on any given day. He reports on how it is to face a decline in one's capacities, in particular one's intellectual capacities. And he reminds us, gently but firmly, that there's no deferment on this one. The book is funny, realistic, and a good read, and -- for me at least -- remarkably cheerful. I am facing rather sudden deterioration in my own health and in my husband's, and I hesitated to read this, as much as I have always enjoyed Mr. Kinsley's writing. Once I started, however, I kept right on reading, and found it in fact oddly comforting. The last chapter, on how the Boomers could pay down the national debt, is a bit of a loose end, but this book is good enough to excuse a short trip into fantasy. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #749,189 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #744 in Aging Parents (Books) #1,921 in Essays (Books) #15,545 in Memoirs (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.6 out of 5 stars 689 Reviews | ## Images ![Old Age: A Beginner's Guide - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61fiRQt+kpL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Should or shouldn't we share this with twin sons recovering from brain tumor operations? *by C***N on April 27, 2016* If one reads this book as I just did, it strikes me as appealing to several level of abstraction. On one level, it relates some humorous experiences of the author after he decided to go public with news of his Parkinson's disease. There are pros and cons, of course. But it's still a good read, regardless. At my level, it speaks to the experiences we've had with young identical twin sons who had identical brain tumors removed. My wife and I have never discussed with them their post-operation experiences and attitudes. I assume they're similar to Kinsley's, but they are both living normal (so far as we can tell, anyway) productive lives and we feel it would be an unwanted intrusion to inquire. The question for the jury: should we make them aware of this book or even send them copies? Answer: We don't think so. It would be the equivalent of doing what we've avoided so far--intruding. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Funny, Oddly Comforting *by A***S on May 15, 2016* Mr. Kinsley has sent us a scout's report on the Boomer Generation's last frontier -- old age and death. Having been diagnosed with Parkinson's before he was 50, Mr. Kinsley has already experienced much of what most of the rest of his generation will have to face in their rapidly approaching 70's and 80's. He reports on how someone with a serious illness moves suddenly into a different category; the sick as opposed to the well, no matter how well you may feel on any given day. He reports on how it is to face a decline in one's capacities, in particular one's intellectual capacities. And he reminds us, gently but firmly, that there's no deferment on this one. The book is funny, realistic, and a good read, and -- for me at least -- remarkably cheerful. I am facing rather sudden deterioration in my own health and in my husband's, and I hesitated to read this, as much as I have always enjoyed Mr. Kinsley's writing. Once I started, however, I kept right on reading, and found it in fact oddly comforting. The last chapter, on how the Boomers could pay down the national debt, is a bit of a loose end, but this book is good enough to excuse a short trip into fantasy. ### ⭐⭐⭐ I thought I could recommend M. Kinsley's "Old Age: A Reader's Guide" *by G***E on June 14, 2016* I thought I could recommend M. Kinsley’s “Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide.” I ought to have known that Michael Kinsley’s Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide was not about old age, or it could have been had he not played fast and loose with his readers or, maybe those like me who do not know him as well. Had I known him better than I do, I would have known that he was just playing with me, that the book was really about something other, like growing old with an unwelcomed disease like Parkinson’s, or maybe not. Not all of us are as smart as Michael Kinsley. But doesn’t the book say one thing and doesn’t the author do another? I would have expected a writer with Parkinson’s to take it in. I would not recommend the book to a good friend who is growing old with Parkinson’s. My wife and I notice the changes that have taken place since he and his wife last visited on those weekends that we get together for season of plays at the Long Wharf. But, even as I had to reckon with the baggage Michael Kinsley lays on, I was somewhat pleased with the outcome. I don’t know if I can recite my telephone number backwards at eighty-four. I just tried and decided not to try any more. I’m presently more concerned with the ability to walk around the first floor of the mall with a cane without weaving for the pedestrian traffic or weaving because I cannot follow a straight line along the floor, even if there is a clear path ahead of me. I suppose that I would still recommend the book because each one of us has a reason to look back or ahead as therapy. My own organs started, some years ago, to betray me. The latest “betrayal’ as Kinsley calls it took place when I got home from a library class on writing, and my wife told me, after greeting me in the kitchen, that I was out of my mind, and I was. The doctor at the hospital saw me pass blood and in the next hour I was in surgery, and the nursing staff was prepping me for the surgeon who would remove the tumor. Lucky me. I’m cancer free. As long as Michael continues writing books about growing old, I would love to read more. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.at/products/27038697-old-age-a-beginners-guide](https://www.desertcart.at/products/27038697-old-age-a-beginners-guide) --- *Product available on Desertcart Austria* *Store origin: AT* *Last updated: 2026-06-03*