A review by emilyinherhead
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Duchess Goldblatt

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Nobody’s ever read my aura, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably light gray and covered with lint. I’m exhausted most of the time, impatient, distracted, visiting another neighborhood in my head, always with a slow current of sadness underneath. Duchess is white light. She’s fully present. She’s something else entirely.

This memoir crossed my path recently at my local used bookstore, and I picked it up because I’d recently heard Anne Bogel talk about it on her What Should I Read Next? podcast. I did not have prior knowledge of or experience with the Duchess Goldblatt character on Twitter, but Anne assured her listeners that this wasn’t a prerequisite for enjoying the book. She was right!

The anonymous creator of Duchess Goldblatt describes her life before this project: she was a newly divorced single mother of a young boy, disconnected from almost all of her friends and family-by-marriage, bereaved of biological family, lonely, hurt, adrift.

And then came a silly idea to create a fictional character on social media, an 81-year-old woman who was kind, encouraging, utterly in love with herself and the world.

The process proves transformative, for the anonymous author and for her flourishing community of followers and fans. Even with her true identity hidden, she develops very real friendships and connections, including a close relationship with Lyle Lovett (one of the few who is admitted to meet her in person and learn her true identity). She gives daily joy to those who loyally read her tweets, she always responds, she facilitates witty and deeply kind exchanges between her devoted fans. As the Duchess identity begins to seep into her own, the author learns to transform her thinking, to approach sorrow in new ways, to change how she exists in the world.

To be sure, this author’s life has not been easy. She has much to grieve. But her story is so tenderly and genuinely told, so ultimately uplifting, that I couldn’t stop reading. This will be a book I’m recommending to people (or buying copies to physically shove into their hands) for a long time to come.