The Late Show: A Semiwild But Practical Guide for Women Over 50

The author of Sex and the Single Girl describes what it is like to grow old, discussing emotional security, marriage, money, sex, beauty, clothes, food, exercise, health, doctors, and work. 100,000 first printing. $125,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Longtime Cosmopolitan editor Brown ( Sex and the Single Girl ), who helped usher in the '60s with her magazine's brash, sassy advice on everything from getting it on to taking it off, here offers her brand of consolation to those of her followers now on the cusp of old age. Funny and breezy, she ticks off the multitude of indignities and frustrations aging women face. She also shares her own efforts to vanquish time, as well as those of innumerable rich and famous friends. Sex and money, she believes, are the keys to happiness, and she is not lacking for examples of 90-year-olds who are doing well. But there is still hope for those who will determinedly count little pleasures and bigger ones ("room service in a great hotel when you aren't paying"). She doesn't recommend tattooing for receding hairlines, as she herself tried, but neither does she stint on advice about how else to keep up appearances and stay thin. However frothy, this little advisory offers comfort and cheer--possibly even for those who have neither sex nor money.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thirty years after her Sex and the Single Girl assured women that acting smart and feeling sexy aren't incompatible, Brown (Having It All, 1982, etc.) returns to explain how aging also fits right into the formula. At 69, the Cosmo Girl hasn't lost a step; with outrageous confidence, she's still assuring readers that looks, charm, and sex with a man are what it's all about (``Sex is one of the three best things there is and I'm not sure what the other two are''). In the chirpy, anecdotal style of a women's magazine article, Brown glosses over marriage, sex, clothes, food, and exercise, using as examples her own experiences and those of friends, famous and otherwise. Though dismayed by the fact of aging (``the ideal state for an older woman is younger''), the author recognizes the new exigencies. As one friend sums it up, ``Between fifty and sixty, sex is out there; if you want it, you can connect. After sixty, you have to supply the sled, the snow, and the dog team.'' Brown does mention that health and financial security are key to anyone's game plan, and she includes relevant observations on doctors, the 30-vitamin regimen that helps maintain her greyhound weight, and loneliness--but the emphasis is really elsewhere, and when she approaches the serious health issues of aging women, she can't let up on the casual asides and naughty gossip. Furthermore, Brown is cavalier about cosmetic surgeries, champions estrogen treatments, and still defends the 1988 Cosmo article that downplayed the risks of AIDS to women. For the woman who wasn't born yesterday and won't stop thinking about tomorrow's lover, these lubricated sentiments can offer humorous support--but for many, Brown's lifelong pursuit of happiness will seem no more uplifting than flimsy lingerie. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.