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A review by sjgrodsky
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
4.0
You can certainly understand why Lillian Dunkle is the cold, grasping, arrogant, demanding character that she is. She is terrorized by Cossacks in her native Russia, abandoned by both parents shortly after arriving in America, then hardened by demanding labor, extreme poverty, and physical disability.
You can feel sympathy for her sufferings. You can admire her energy, determination, resourcefulness. You can find her brassy sarcasm entertaining. But as the book progresses, you begin to think "what more?"
The story moves along at a good clip with new events and characters (or reappearances of old characters) every few pages. The contemporaneous cultural references ("Hang on Sloopy") are pitch perfect.
**********Spoiler Alert*****************
But I had had enough of Lillian, her family, her legal issues, and her alcoholism long before I reached the last page. And maybe this is the author's point: Lillian is entertaining. Lillian is a survivor. But she can't change and she can't grow. In the end she's a bore.
You can feel sympathy for her sufferings. You can admire her energy, determination, resourcefulness. You can find her brassy sarcasm entertaining. But as the book progresses, you begin to think "what more?"
The story moves along at a good clip with new events and characters (or reappearances of old characters) every few pages. The contemporaneous cultural references ("Hang on Sloopy") are pitch perfect.
**********Spoiler Alert*****************
But I had had enough of Lillian, her family, her legal issues, and her alcoholism long before I reached the last page. And maybe this is the author's point: Lillian is entertaining. Lillian is a survivor. But she can't change and she can't grow. In the end she's a bore.