Books

Just see where a leap can take you

By Alice Graves, Special to the Times
Published March 27, 2007

At the age of 57, Sara Davidson's life was in the dumps: Her long-term relationship ended abruptly, her daughter left for college, and she was told that her TV scripts were no longer edgy enough for the networks. Then her agent stopped returning her calls, always a bad sign.

So Davidson, best known for her 1977 novel Loose Change (it became a TV miniseries), and for writing and co-producing Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, embarked on a journey to find the rest of her life. She conducted hundreds of interviews with boomers, most of them celebrities, who had reinvented themselves at midlife. Sort of a Woodstock generation family reunion.

The list of people she interviewed reads like a Who-Was-Who of the '60s:

- Carly Simon talks less about her battle with breast cancer than about being dumped by her record label in her 40s. When the rent on her New York City apartment nearly quadrupled and she could no longer afford it, she retreated to her Martha's Vineyard place, where she set up a recording studio and created what became known as The Bedroom Tapes, jump-starting her floundering career.

- Tom Hayden, former member of the California Legislature, a Chicago Seven defendant and one of Jane Fonda's ex's, underwent quintuple bypass in 2001 at age 62. Forced to quit politics, he is now a college professor.

- Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek says he is "juicy." He still performs, but a lawsuit prohibits him from using the name "Doors."

Also here are supermodels Iman and Cheryl Tiegs, and counter-culture stars Jane Fonda, Paul Krassner and Gloria Steinem . . .

As part of her research, Davidson undertook some edgy and exciting projects:

She spent two weeks teaching English to lower-caste orphans outside of Mumbai, India. She visited an expatriate retirement community in Costa Rica, where life is rustic - bad roads, no telephone, cable TV or Internet, but the homes cost half a million dollars.

She attended a tantric sex workshop with her lover, a cowboy 10 years her junior whom she met on the Dr. Quinn set.

She commiserated with her friend, Andy (Dr. Andrew Weil to the rest of us), about forming a community of friends who would live together and care for one another as they age. And she visited a plastic surgeon to have her eyelids done, which brought the wrath of her teenage daughter.

Davidson has written for such magazines as O, Rolling Stone, Harper's and Esquire, so she knows how to connect with the masses. She made this a light, fluffy book you can read while waiting for your hair color to set.

In the end, Davidson's basic philosophy is to not merely enjoy aging, but to embrace it, make the most of it.

Not everyone in Davidson's book is famous, but all are creative, intelligent and face no financial constraints. Oh, to be one of them.

. the book

Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives?

By Sara Davidson. Random House. 317 pages. $25.95

[Last modified March 27, 2007, 08:10:23]