NAKED AT THE HELM

In this debut memoir, an octogenarian looks back on an action- and travel-filled life that included becoming a single mother at the age of 40.

For Spector, who published this book at 86, life truly began at 40. For had she not left a loveless, 18-year marriage, she might never have found the gumption to do half the things she recounts in her memoir, much less end up writing about them. It all started, though, with the gumption to do this: “The truck backed up to the bin, reached out its metal arms, grabbed that dumpster, and flipped it over. With a resounding crunch, the couch was pulverized, along with all the other garbage left from my marriage.” And so it began, nearly 50 years of life lived as truthfully and directly as that bit of prose. What followed were boyfriends and girlfriends, sex clubs and self-help, and, in a turn of events that seems totally in character with this book, a near threesome in Marbella, Spain, involving a celebrity with a famous sexual history. Mostly, the work is about Spector finding a second career as a disciple of Carl Rogers, a founder of the humanistic approach to psychology. (She did this after beginning a doctoral program in psychology at 53.) The author is a poster child for making every minute count, and this engaging book is her proof, her diary of a life lived to the fullest as a teacher, artist, writer, and more. It’s all set against the backdrop of her travels, which took her to Africa, Turkey, Britain, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Russia, among other far-flung places. Spector has an easy writing style that invites readers to go on these journeys with her, though she does get a tad in the weeds when she’s talking about psychology and the humanistic approach. Still, her memoir vividly chronicles a life well lived, giving hope to many that it’s never too late to try something new.

A lively account by an author who has reinvented herself again and again.