Now What is a revealing, witty series of reflections on living while old.
Butler offers the reader a welcome glimpse into the richness, foolishness, limitations, bravado, and freedom of a vividly lived 88-year-old life.
“…Sandra Butler serves her familiar fierce Torah of Jewish humor and queer feminist wisdom along with unapologetic vulnerability about the physical, emotional, political, and spiritual complexities of aging. As she writes, ‘My preference has always been to talk through my life, and not wait till the end to murmur a declaration or two.‘ Sandy peels back the veil and talks directly to the reader about potent aspects of old age that are often avoided, such as sexuality, death, truth and lies, and multigenerational mothering and daughtering. Relationships with friends, comrades, daughters, and ancestors will be moved, challenged, and inspired by the stories in this volume, which I receive as a loving gift and powerful addition to her series of personal memoirs. Amen Selah!”
—Karen Lee Erlichman, D.Min, LCSW is a psychotherapist, spiritual director, writer and mentor.
From balky knees and balkier institutions to late-life friendships, continuing resistance against fools and knaves, and gratitude for each brand-new morning of unexpected joy, Butler writes the truth of old age exactly as she lives it: vividly, imperfectly, on her own terms. These clear-eyed observations refuse syrup and sentiment. Instead, they offer the relief of recognition—and the freedom that comes from naming what we’re not supposed to say out loud.
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Welcome.
This site is a collection of my writing over the past 50 years, offering the reader a sense of where I’ve been and the concerns that have drawn my personal and political attention.
Now What? Notes from the Front Lines of Old Age is the third in a series of memoirs, the first written when I was a mere 81, the second at 83, and the current book written in my 87th year. What’s next remains to be seen!
Enjoy. Don’t be a stranger. Be in touch.
Recent Press
- Alte piece:
Enough Already! How old do I have to be before I can put an end to my lifelong task of trying to improve? - HuffPost piece:
I Have Been Lying To My Grown Children For Years. Here’s What They Don’t Know About My Life. - KXCI Interview
Listen to Sandra on KXCI’s Broad Perspectives (Nov. 3, 2024).
Previous Books:
Leaving Home at 83
It’s a ‘zine! It’s a movie! It’s a sit-com! Actually, it’s an intimate glimpse into Sandra Butler’s personal journal as an 83-year-old queer Jewish feminist activist leaving her Bay Area home to
live close to her daughters in the Red State of Arizona.
The Kitchen is Closed: And Other Benefits of Being Old
In this funny and intensely personal collection of essays, Butler chronicles her experience moving from aging to old.
With its sharp humor and refreshing honesty, The Kitchen Is Closed is a must-read for aging women, eldercare workers, and adult children who want to gain a fuller sense of their mother’s life.
It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-aged Daughters
Being a mother is rarely easy. Being an aging mother with a middle-aged daughter presents its own complexities, challenges, and rewards.
This book explores this experience, opening the path to further conversation about the difficulties and richness of this time.
Cancer in Two Voices
“This landmark feminist perspective on breast cancer…is an indictment of the medical profession’s casual attitude to women’s illness, an also a touching chronicle of two women in their forties grappling intellectually and emotionally with premature death.”
– Publishers Weekly (1988)
Conspiracy of Silence
In 1978, this book was published and became a cornerstone in the activist/feminist movement to end sexual assault.
“…The raw impact is enormous.”
– Publishers Weekly (1979)