Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland to take a road trip in The Leisure Seeker

You know you’re old when ... you realize that a book about a couple of old farts going on a road trip in a Winnebago was written for aging baby boomers like you. 

He has Alzheimer’s. She has cancer. It has all the makings for a trip from hell.

A sort of Easy Rider meets The Notebook, Michael Zadoorian’s poignant, funny, vibrant, and unforgettable novel, The Leisure Seeker, is a story of two seniors who escape from their retirement home and embark upon a hilarious and touching end-of-life road trip. Here is a story that will appeal to a wide range of readers: from retiring Baby Boomers to fans of Mitch Albom, Tom Perotta, David Sedaris, Nick Hornby, and Nicholas Sparks. In fact, the Detroit Free Press says, “I would recommend Michael Zadoorian’s The Leisure Seeker to almost anyone.”

Urgh! I can vouch for the fact that once you hit ‘a certain age’ the conversation about seeing the country in an RV is unavoidable. Thank God, my retirement home days are many years in the future as is a ‘touching end of life’ road trip. I’m like that idiotic woman on the commercial who says “I’m only in my sixties, I’ve got a good long life ahead.” 

The movie, starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a couple of seventy-something’s who defy their doctors and adult children to head off to see their hero Ernest Hemmingway’s Key West home, is currently being offered at Cannes. 

Oh no! My hubby and I went to Key West last year, and yes, Hemmingway’s home was a huge attraction. And don’t tell anyone but my BFF and I went to see Hello, My Name is Doris last week. The audience was filled with grey haired oldsters—mostly women looking like they stopped on the way to a Hilary Clinton rally—some of whom talked throughout the movie. And who all laughed with recognition at the older woman with the delusional crush on the younger man. My friend and I agreed it was good to see some older faces on the screen and joked about Hollywood’s preference for the young. Hashtag OscarsSoYoung should be a thing, we laughed. 

I guess those ladies will be back at the theater sometime next year when Italian director Paulo Virzo’s The Leisure Seeker hits movie screens. Damn. I’ll probably be there too. On Thursday’s seniors get free popcorn.