In response to recent claims for the role of the humanities in understanding aging, this paper identifies certain works of fiction which illustrate and dramatize such concepts as life review and integrity. In its consideration of novels by Muriel Spark, Tillie Olsen, Margaret Laurence, and Jessica Anderson, the essay argues that complex fiction about old persons refuses to over-simplify or sentimentalize the problems of aging but often finds poetic and symbolic means of affirming the positive values of life review and spiritual growth at the end of life's journey.
