Boomer lit

Boomer lit is a literary genre which is written for and often by both male and female baby boomers. Matron literature, or hen lit which usually has only female protagonists can be regarded as an off-shoot of Boomer lit. Boomer lit explores all issues and aspects of a generation that is ageing, yet is still prepared to challenge the stereotypes and expectations of age-appropriate behaviour. Topics are likely to include age-related issues, inter-generational issues, refusal to be marginalised, breakdown of marriage and changing aspirations or self-search after retirement.

Examples

Early examples of Boomer Lit include

• Therapy by David Lodge
• About Schmidt series by Louis Begley
• The Hot Flash Club series by Nancy Thayer

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach has been turned into a film and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce was long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker Prize.

The genre includes widely diverse books, ranging from slice-of-life novels to memoirs such as:^[1][2]

• Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
• The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
• Crimson Clouds by Claude Nougat
• Confessions of an Instinctively Mutinous Baby Boomer by Marsha Roberts
• The Crone Club by S. V. Peddle'
• 'Goodbye Emily by Michael Murphy
• Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston
• Italian Lessons by Peter Pezzelli
• Live a Little by Kim Green
• No Place like Home by Anne.R. Allen
• The Best Place to Be by Lesley Dormen

• The Paper Doll Museum by Abigail Padgett
• Waltzing by Robert Dalby
• Set The Night on Fire by Libby Fischer Hellmann

References