Midlifeman: A Book for Guys and the Women Who Want to Understand Them

William Glassman is a professor of psychology at Ryerson Polytechnical
University in Toronto.

A “midlifeman” is a man in his forties—no longer young, but not
yet old. Part memoir, part reflective essay, this book chronicles the
author’s own journey through the forties. It’s a warts-and-all
self-portrait that sheds light on his divorces, his ambivalence about
cars and careers, and so on.

Krotz writes engagingly, with a mix of candor and self-deprecating
humor, but it is not clear what his book is supposed to be. Unlike Gail
Sheehy’s classic study, Passages, it is not a scholarly review of
behavioral research on midlife males in North America. Indeed, many of
the experiences Krotz describes are less than universal; for example,
not all men have millionaires and cabinet ministers for friends, or have
been divorced twice.

In fairness, Krotz discusses a number of common issues, from changing
relationships to changing life goals, and does so in an entertaining
way. But the fact remains that Midlifeman has limited value as a
practical guide for others. Women in particular should proceed with
caution—unless the man they seek to understand is Larry Krotz.