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Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor

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Reinventing Myself: Memoirs Of A Retired Professor by Marlys Marshall Styne (40 years of teaching in The English Department of Wilbur Wright College) is the a selection of personal essays by the retired, widowed, childless author, seeking contentment and greater understanding through reflection. Her reminiscences on family, aging, teaching, travel, revelations, and inspirational moments are meant to encourage fellow human beings of all ages and senior citizens especially to experience more and partake in the catharsis of writing. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this gentle and overall joyful collection.

I bought this book because I am interested in genealogy and I thought the author is a very distant relative of mine. After reading the book, I am sure she is a relative. Beyond the genealogy part that I was looking for, and even though I am not retired, so many things she wrote about are the same memories that I have of growing up. While I was reading, it felt like I was "reinventing" those days and was sitting right down talking to Marlys. I wish I could do that for a day. I admire her for not just sitting around doing nothing after she retired. While I may never take a trip on a motorcycle, I plan to keep busy like she is when I retire. I really enjoyed the book.

What a delightful book! Readers of Reinventing Myself will enjoy an exciting travel adventure, a real love story, a condensed but highly interesting autobiography, the wisdom of a professor, a frank discussion of aging - especially concerning a woman alone - and a frank but vulnerable glance from a breast cancer survivor. This memoir also contains picturesque descriptions of condos and classrooms, a neighborhood bar and long thoughtful walks, quirky cats and the value of poetry and writing, tours on every continent, and the expectations for a final residence, where, any careful reader would assume, a framed needlepoint picture of Anne Hathaway's Cottage will make it home.

Few people have the spirit and energy to reinvent themselves. Marlys Styne has not only the will but the talent to become a writer. As she, and we, reexamines her life, clearly gumption has been there all along. How many professional women don leather suits, fling a leg over a back seat, and hang on for miles and days as hubby drives his motorcycle all over the world? How many widows see themselves as interesting, separate from a spouse, and proceed to be even more interesting? How many retirees find a second calling?

In the reinventing of Professor Styne, the tense is important. She didn't reinvent herself in a gush of self discovery, she's been doing it quietly all along.

As for her current iteration as a writer, pay close attention. Her style is straightforward and unadorned, which may speed you past the not inconsiderable wit of a life well observed.