With 'Featherless,' her new novel about aging, ailing and the inevitability of death. A. G. Mojtabai joins so many other prominent contemporary fiction writers (Toni Morrison, Phillip Roth, Marilynne Robinson and Margaret Atwood, to name a few) who have explored aging late in their careers.

“I can no longer kid myself that death is a distant reality,” Father Thomas Reese, former editor in chief of America, writes.

The secret to longevity? Her Catholic faith, Sister Inah Canabarro says.

There is a price to be paid for longevity in the current American culture. It is called loneliness.

The realization that a younger person is more fit, more alert, more capable, more relevant, more suited to the job one has long done is not fun. We baby boomers can relate.

We must begin to notice, name and resist the distortions caused by ageism, so that more clear-eyed assessments of President Biden are possible.