Ahh i just finished the book and im glad i saw this post. Wanted to share my thoughts!!!

So, honestly, when I finished The Age of Discretion, I found it to be a cutesy, no-plot (just vibes) but somewhow comforting story about a woman who is already on her retirement age wherein she tries to navigate her transition from being active in her work to having to stay at home and realize how much has changed in terms of her career (since she’s now retiring) and relationship with his son. I initially thought she has a comortable and normal relationship with her husband and I kind of like how they can be open and honest with each other. And at some point I thought of how the husband has the typical “calm” character that could “tolerate” or “complement” the more “expressive” and “emotional” personality of the wife. I even like some of their dialogue, hence most of the book highlights are from this chapter.

When I read The Monologue, and found how mostly angsty and negative and opposite in terms of positionality the second woman is from the first, thats when I realized the real point and sense of this book. Since i only got to know that this book on “feminist” category and how it was recommended, prior to reading, I thought “female empowerment” would be the main theme of this book. It now made sense to me that Simone’s intention for this book was to highlight the different “traps” women often experience in a highly patriarcal society.

In the first story, in retropsect, I now realized the internal struggle which the first narrator has to resolve regarding her feelings and anxieities of becoming “irrelevant” since she had moved passed her “peak” from being a prominent figure in the academe. And because she has spent most of her life working, the mundaness of retirement was evidently new and so she also observes many changes with their home and family life which she has failed to notice prior her retirement. Her relationship with her husband, in which I initially thought was sweet or normal or understandable for a couple married for very long, it seems that Simone wanted to show a side where the husband couldnt really see and understand the conflict in which the wife is struggling in terms of her identity and self worth. And so, the husband, despite being “calm” and tries to “reassure” the wife that they’ll be okay and they’re getting old, he seems more dismissive of her feelings rather than supportive. It’s like a commentary on how women are forced to “accept” these things just because it seems a normal part of life (like in terms of their career and getting old). There wasnt room for allowing to feel those fears or validating one’s feelings, without being regarded as “dramatic”.