Let's be less stupid

Patricia Marx opens by challenging Freud's claim that sex and death are the two forces behind human thought and behavior. Her own ranking is less flattering: fear of embarrassment rules until thirty, then the wish to lose weight, and eventually the need to sit down. From there she turns to the most unsettling part of growing older, the gradual slipping of the mind, and approaches it with wit.

Marx has seen plenty of it firsthand, from misplaced keys to a sister-in-law's name that refuses to surface. Through it all she has kept her friendships intact. Her efforts to stay sharp are a running joke: she attempts to learn Cherokee, subjects her brain to electrical stimulation, takes pills meant to help her focus, and spends hours listening to Mozart.

The book is aimed at men and women of a certain age, though its candor and humor should land with readers of any age. Marx is a longtime New Yorker staff writer and a former SNL writer, and she was the first woman elected to the Harvard Lampoon. She has been compared to Nora Ephron.