Wise Children

Continuing my series of random references to menopause in literature I have just reviewed 'Wise Children' by Angela Carter and saved this lovely little quote. It seems that sex and having babies gets mentioned regularly in fiction but periods and menopause are still rather a taboo subject, so this rather matter of fact comment by Dora Chance is quite refreshing:

"We started the very same day those two were born, as it happens. Funny coincidence. I went to have a wee and there was the evidence, all over my underwear. I hotfooted it to Nora and she took a look on her own account. Same thing with her. Grandma got us some cotton wool. Although we are asymmetrical, in many ways, we always, funnily enough, came on in unison until we stopped, short, never to go again, the tap turned off just twenty-five years ago." (p.74)