If ever there was a manual for surviving a marriage breakup at 60, Suddenly Single at Sixty is it.
Peck, a successful advertising executive, was floored when her husband of 25 years dumped her for a much younger woman.
What is illuminating for Peck and the reader is that her friends had seen it coming, as her husband’s behaviour had long been problematic.
Naturally, she was angry, and also mournful. She was furious because she had been duped, and embarrassed because she considered herself to be a relatively sensible, intelligent woman.
The advice she got from a therapist determined her future: ‘You have to do something, Jo, anything, otherwise you’ll go under.’
So, she proceeded to ‘do’ things, her hair, her make-up, her work, gradually becoming more independent, moving to her own apartment, and realising that because of her mother’s early death, she had a longstanding fear of abandonment. This meant she had put up with her husband’s behaviour, rather than face abandonment again.
There are all the stages of grief and self-examination in this memoir, before Peck dips her toe into the world of apps for 60-plus dating. Her descriptions of dates and sexual encounters with men are fun, and she finds her new partner along the way.
Whether a marriage ends in divorce or death, there is always grief. Peck provides a candid account of the hurt and betrayal that she worked through to find her final acceptance of a second chance at a good life, while remembering the good times, and consigning the bad times to history.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jo Peck grew up in Healesville, Victoria. She worked in advertising for 35 years, co-running her own ad agency, Working Girls Advertising, for twenty of those years. She lives in Melbourne with her new partner.
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