BUT FIRST, A ROMANTIC 4:00 PM SENIORS’ SPECIAL AT FRIENDLY’S TO SET THE MOOD

Chick lit goes hip, as in replacement (Anne-Marie Owens, National Post, January 28th, 2006)

Chick lit may finally be succumbing to age, as the legion of books detailing the boozy, sex-filled exploits of Bridget Jones and her ilk are making way for books detailing the boozy, sex-filled exploits of post-menopausal women.

Instead of cigarettes and shagging, this new genre, which has been dubbed matron lit or hen lit, revolves around hot flashes, HRT, and shagging.

Gail Sheehy has a new book called Sex and the Seasoned Woman, which describes the particular "surge of vitality" in the sex lives of women she describes as "marinated in life experience;" there are scores of new novels whose plots revolve around the sexual lives and proclivities of post-menopausal women; and there's even a new British publishing house, Transita, dedicated to titles aimed at women over 50.

Thanks to the likes of Kim Cattrall and her insatiable cougar character Samantha on Sex and the City and by Jane Juska, whose book chronicled the passionate year that followed her ad seeking someone with whom to have a lot of sex, the once-unfathomable fantasy fodder of older women having sex just might be fashionable and even, well, hot.[...]

In the new realm of matron lit, however, sexual encounters are no longer restricted to the young, thin and flat-abbed, but instead feature characters middle-aged and older, with less-than-perfect bodies, and whose sexual quandaries include such complications as hip replacements and performance problems along with the usual lust and love scenarios.

This is how some of these books are described: The Hot Flash Club series, by Nancy Thayer, which revolves around the exploits of four women between the ages of 48 and 62, "who discover themselves as they were truly meant to be -- passionate, alive, and ready to face the best years of their lives;" Farewell My Ovaries, by Australia's Wendy Harmer, whose main character sets out on "a last, pre-menopausal hurrah," by opting for a night of fabulous sex with a young surfer rather than the tired sexual encounters of her marital life; Jilly Cooper's forthcoming book Wicked, which includes a romance between two octogenarians, with a scene where the 80-year-old man gets down to propose but can't get back up; and, Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex and Real Estate, Jane Juska's follow-up to her sensation-causing A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance.

Sheila Kay, deputy director of publicity for Random House Canada, says it is a trend driven largely by demographics: "The first Baby Boomers are hitting 60, and a huge wave of women are in their early 50s -- they are vital and vocal about what they want."

And bless them for it, but many of us now navigating the rocky shoals of middle age and looking forward to a few quiet years with a good book may tremble at the thought of a seniority where we will be forced to study Tantric sex and stay awake while someone recovering from a hip replacement tries to change into something more comfortable.