Booklife Review full review

The first installment in Huie’s My Socks Are Dirty series is a self-deprecating miscellany of humorous quips that poke fun at the less-than-glamorous aspects of entering the golden years. “I’m not old, just crispy,” Huie writes, citing the cacophony of cracks that his body makes as a man in his seventies. His mind is also a source of amusement as it ages: “The next time I lose my mind, I swear, I’m not even going to go look for it.” So it goes, often with three or four gentle gibes on a page, inviting groans as often as laughs: “I went bald years ago, but I still carry a comb. I just can’t part with it.” The gags are original, pared down to essential words only, though the material can be dated, especially some jokes whose Henny Youngman-esque punchlines assume men would love to be rid of their wives.

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But even a riff about “nagging” suggests it might be the husband who is at fault, and most of the material is accessible and lighthearted. Some lines offer more philosophical depth and lessons so true they do not age: “When I was young, I had a handle on life, but over time, it broke.” So, what does one do when the handle breaks? The answer, according to Huie, is to laugh. Rather than shirk from the realities of aging or attempt to prevent it, Huie’s jokes invite readers to take the grave fact of human mortality less seriously and thereby expand joy and appreciation for life as it is instead of as it was.

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Central to Huie’s comedy is a disconnect between the mind and body; he writes, “My mind still thinks my body is still 30-something. My body thinks my mind is a total idiot,” but the implication in this assessment is that despite the ailing body, a youthful spirit remains and thrives. The laughter Huie elicits is a gesture of ageless youth.

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