Among modern male writers, J.M. Coetzee, John Updike, and Philip Roth have written intense novels about aging in the life of a man. But since the days of Colette, there have been few novels that explore the richness of life as women age. Elizabeth Strout's collection of short stories, Olive Kitteridge, is a notable exception. Yet, older women often live deeply exciting lives. Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychoanalyst, wrote that during our first forty years we journey outward to find our place in society and during the second forty we journey inward to contemplate our inner world where we can...