Terry McMillan's New Novel Is an Exhilarating Ode to the Young at Heart
The author of the modern classic How Stella Got Her Groove Back returns with It’s Not All Downhill from Here, a wise and wisecracking novel of aging, heartbreak, and the quest to “pump up the volume” in late midlife.
The story opens with Loretha Curry on the cusp of her 68th birthday—happy with her husband of 24 years, Carl (whom she loves “more than my Twizzlers!”); her dog, B. B. King; and a bevy of protective if sharp-tongued BFFs, among them Lucky, Sadie, Korynthia, and Poochie. She’s content, though a tad bored, running two beauty supply stores and dancing at home to Bruno Mars after work while Carl cheers her on from his recliner. But when Carl dies suddenly of a heart attack, Loretha is knocked sideways by grief.
Loretha’s recovery is neither fast nor easy; this book doesn’t try to put a happy face on loneliness, bereavement, or fear. It’s thoughtful about illness and addiction, about the way adult children can let their parents down, and how we sometimes lash out hardest at the people we care for most. But it’s darkly funny, too, as when our protagonist observes that her sister Odessa “has never subscribed to our mother’s advice that ‘the only place you should look bad is at home,’” or when Loretha finds herself flirting with the drive-through guy taking her cheeseburger order—or, more accurately, with a voice in a box.
McMillan, now in her late 60s, has a gift (going all the way back to 1992’s Waiting to Exhale) for creating characters who face serious problems and still have the ability to laugh at themselves and respond to their truth-telling friends with wit and openness. If getting older is this joyful, despite the painful losses, bring it on.
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