The Golden Years Glitch

A retiree’s life upends when she learns about her husband’s infidelity.

Andrea Parker recently began stepping away from the marketing business she founded, leaving it in her sons’ hands. The 69-year-old spends her newfound free time with her husband, Jed, and working at a consignment shop, Sweet Repeats, she started with two of her besties Jeannie and Melanie. Just as she settles into this life, her granddaughter Brooke bursts in with earth-shattering news: Jed has been publicly flirting with a younger woman on Facebook. Jed, 74, sending what he thought were private messages, carried on a full conversation with the woman, Renee, on her viewable-by-all Facebook page. Brooke, and, later, family and friends, discover the humiliating exchange. Although Jed convinces Andi it was only flirting, she kicks him out. In the wake of this revelation, the near septuagenarian falls into a deep depression, but works to come out of it by spending time with her friends, her children, and grandchildren and expanding the shop. Along the way, she even begins to explore new love. While Andi deals with her heartbreak, she reflects on her 25 years of marriage with Jed, which she contends was a joyful one. Yet, when actually describing the marriage, it doesn’t sound so. For example, when speaking of her children and Jed’s children, she states, “We never became a happy, blended family. There was always tension among our children.” Andi doesn’t seem to have learned much from Jed’s cheating. She neglects to tell her new flame, Niko, that she’s married. These issues make it more difficult to root for the lead in parts of the story. Still, Smith, despite overdramatizing several scenes, ably depicts Andi’s empowering self-actualization in the wake of devastation as she spends more time with the women in her life doing new activities like a “Mud Run,” deep sea fishing, and talking frankly about their sex lives. In addition, realistic internal dialog about decision-making (“Was I overreacting? Did I want to lose Jed? Should I try and make things better? Should I apologize for my outburst?”) adds a layer of authenticity to this unique spin on a coming-of-age story.

A bighearted novel about finding fulfillment in the third act.