The Old Dick is hilarious in its treatment of detective fiction conventions and various social concerns. The most unusual feature of The Old Dick is the age of its protagonist, seventyeight-year-old Jack Spanner, whose concerns include his health, his worry that he might end up in a nursing home, his observations of how society treats the elderly, and his recognition of the ultimate humiliation of old age.

His emotions and character have not changed much during the four decades following his prime, but because he is old, society stereotypes him as senile, incompetent, dirty, helpless, and disgusting.

As he moves through Los Angeles, Spanner comments sardonically on other social problems, including pollution, urban blight, proliferating pornography, modern youth ruined by too early an exposure to the seamier sides of life, the pretentiousness that pervades Hollywood, the ineptness of social workers who try to help their targeted...