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Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney
"With nothing shall I be pleased till I be eased with being nothing."
I love making bookish New Year’s Resolutions – mainly having to do with my TBR pile, list, and reading ambitions but also trying new things. I always read Christmas-themed books over the Christmas holidays. For whatever reason, this year’s choices were extremely bad. Resolution: read better books this year = quality over quantity. In tandem, Resolution: Get back to reading the authors I love. Resolution: Read less library books, browse my bookshelves, and purge the ones you will never read again.
Okay, that being said, and this is going to be spoilery and rambling and run-on sentence-y and a LOT because I feel the need to write this all down and I sincerely love how Kathleen Rooney takes us on a simple journey with Lillian through such huge changes in time and how we learn to love Lillian through her growth and maturity.
LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK is definitely hitting the parameters of 2023’s resolutions. I loved this book. The reason, the title character, the intelligent, witty, dry, sophisticated, effervescent, but ultimately very human, octogenarian who is interested in everything and everyone around her – especially the love of her life, New York City. She is smarter than everyone in the room but she is also generous, curious, well-mannered, and a delight. She is a people watcher, but not only that, she is a people interact-er (is that a word?) I love how she meets these very real but fascinating characters throughout her life and her walk-about.
As we walk with Lillian on the eve of 1985, we slowly learn about her interesting life – the good, the successful, the bad, the unsuccessful, and the ugly. I took away some life lessons as she learns her lessons. A young dreamer leaves her small town and moves to the big city of New York to become the most successful advertising woman in the world during the 1930s as well as a published poet. We walk with Lillian while she remembers the Jazz age of her youth, the Depression, Prohibition, the WWII and Vietnam wars, women’s liberation and gender equality, the Spanish flu outbreak of 1920 (which took her nursing Aunt – Lillian’s personal and professional motivation for her move), the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (I personally never knew about this and will read more), up to the current day (1984) with street violence, drugs, AIDS (there is a poignant scene where Lillian is afraid to shake a man’s hand. I > sort of < forget about those days and the fear and the misunderstanding.)
We walk with Lillian and her memories of how the changing times affected Lillian’s New York – the decline of once-vibrant areas, gentrification of other areas, and a more violent citizenry. (I say Lillian’s New York because she was on a fast track to success and affluence. Therefore, a lot of the observations made by Lillian are just that – what she viewed but not necessarily always what she experienced.) She had her own hardships and we also walk with Lillian through her personal life: family and personal dynamics (her challenging relationship with her more traditional mother and the beautiful lifetime friendship with Helen who is one hell of a besty), falling in love, motherhood, divorce, alcoholism, mental health, ageism and age discrimination (there is a particularly heart-wrenching scene during a taping of a public television program.) On a personal OMG moment in the story: even though Lillian is at the top of her field, she is let go from her position when she becomes a mother. It is hard to imagine in 2023 (gasp) but mothers were once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, un-retained. Fathers could and must continue working – because they are family men – (what you knew but kinda forgot but should really remember about the generations of women who fought so hard and for so long so women like me have options.) Because Lillian is the breadwinner of the family, she becomes a freelancer – in tandem with her stay-at-home mother duties and all that that entailed – but don’t forget, she also had a duty to her man which also necessitated getting dolled up: clean dress, hair did, makeup flawless, but also dinner in the oven and martinis ready to go for when hubby returned home from his stressful day at work because – god forbid – she look messy after her double duties during the day. Phew!
My one regret is that I have never visited the Big Apple. As the cover on this edition states: “an ode to NYC while also taking a street-level tour through six decades of New York”. I think this book would be especially amazing for someone who is familiar with the place thus an especial walk down memory lane!
Okay, I hate to keep going and ruin the journey for everyone, although I could. There is a lot to love about this book and I will add two more things which explains my bumping up to a
I love making bookish New Year’s Resolutions – mainly having to do with my TBR pile, list, and reading ambitions but also trying new things. I always read Christmas-themed books over the Christmas holidays. For whatever reason, this year’s choices were extremely bad. Resolution: read better books this year = quality over quantity. In tandem, Resolution: Get back to reading the authors I love. Resolution: Read less library books, browse my bookshelves, and purge the ones you will never read again.
Okay, that being said, and this is going to be spoilery and rambling and run-on sentence-y and a LOT because I feel the need to write this all down and I sincerely love how Kathleen Rooney takes us on a simple journey with Lillian through such huge changes in time and how we learn to love Lillian through her growth and maturity.
LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK is definitely hitting the parameters of 2023’s resolutions. I loved this book. The reason, the title character, the intelligent, witty, dry, sophisticated, effervescent, but ultimately very human, octogenarian who is interested in everything and everyone around her – especially the love of her life, New York City. She is smarter than everyone in the room but she is also generous, curious, well-mannered, and a delight. She is a people watcher, but not only that, she is a people interact-er (is that a word?) I love how she meets these very real but fascinating characters throughout her life and her walk-about.
As we walk with Lillian on the eve of 1985, we slowly learn about her interesting life – the good, the successful, the bad, the unsuccessful, and the ugly. I took away some life lessons as she learns her lessons. A young dreamer leaves her small town and moves to the big city of New York to become the most successful advertising woman in the world during the 1930s as well as a published poet. We walk with Lillian while she remembers the Jazz age of her youth, the Depression, Prohibition, the WWII and Vietnam wars, women’s liberation and gender equality, the Spanish flu outbreak of 1920 (which took her nursing Aunt – Lillian’s personal and professional motivation for her move), the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (I personally never knew about this and will read more), up to the current day (1984) with street violence, drugs, AIDS (there is a poignant scene where Lillian is afraid to shake a man’s hand. I > sort of < forget about those days and the fear and the misunderstanding.)
We walk with Lillian and her memories of how the changing times affected Lillian’s New York – the decline of once-vibrant areas, gentrification of other areas, and a more violent citizenry. (I say Lillian’s New York because she was on a fast track to success and affluence. Therefore, a lot of the observations made by Lillian are just that – what she viewed but not necessarily always what she experienced.) She had her own hardships and we also walk with Lillian through her personal life: family and personal dynamics (her challenging relationship with her more traditional mother and the beautiful lifetime friendship with Helen who is one hell of a besty), falling in love, motherhood, divorce, alcoholism, mental health, ageism and age discrimination (there is a particularly heart-wrenching scene during a taping of a public television program.) On a personal OMG moment in the story: even though Lillian is at the top of her field, she is let go from her position when she becomes a mother. It is hard to imagine in 2023 (gasp) but mothers were once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, un-retained. Fathers could and must continue working – because they are family men – (what you knew but kinda forgot but should really remember about the generations of women who fought so hard and for so long so women like me have options.) Because Lillian is the breadwinner of the family, she becomes a freelancer – in tandem with her stay-at-home mother duties and all that that entailed – but don’t forget, she also had a duty to her man which also necessitated getting dolled up: clean dress, hair did, makeup flawless, but also dinner in the oven and martinis ready to go for when hubby returned home from his stressful day at work because – god forbid – she look messy after her double duties during the day. Phew!
My one regret is that I have never visited the Big Apple. As the cover on this edition states: “an ode to NYC while also taking a street-level tour through six decades of New York”. I think this book would be especially amazing for someone who is familiar with the place thus an especial walk down memory lane!
Okay, I hate to keep going and ruin the journey for everyone, although I could. There is a lot to love about this book and I will add two more things which explains my bumping up to a