According to the author this story was inspired by the life of Margaret Fishback. She was the highest paid female copywriter in the world during the 1930s while working for R.H. Macy’s. She was also a published poet. The poetry included in the book was written by Fishback. All of this seemed like a great set up for a novel, and yet, for me it didn’t quite work.
The structure of the novel centers around New Years Eve 1984, when Lillian Boxfish is 85 years old. She is set to go out for dinner at her usual restaurant. She has also found a package of partially eaten Oreos in her kitchen. She doesn’t remember buying or eating them, but feels uncomfortably full just before her upcoming New Years Eve meal. Lillian then remembers her life over the course of the night as she walks (!) approximately 6 miles through Manhattan. The 1985 New York City is somewhat rundown in comparison to when she arrived in the 1920s with the city rising to new heights, including the Empire State Building. (There are many references to the subway vigilante) In her younger years she fought for her place in the advertising business, eschewing marriage and other conventions. She became more conventional when she married at age 35 and became a mother several years later. Naturally she was required to quit her job, no maternity leaves and working mothers in the 1940s. She continued to write ad copy as a freelancer. She later has an episode of depression which might have been called a nervous breakdown at the time. As she remembers these episodes in her life her upbeat telling of it doesn’t feel real. In and out of institutions in 3 or 4 months including electric shock therapy. Thereafter a tidy and amicable divorce. Is it the advertising woman putting a spin on her life to make herself look good? Her encounters on her New Year’s Eve walk are equally sunny, every conversation is one in which she remains calm, inserts wit and wins the argument with people half or a third her age, even the young men who attempt to mug her. It’s all just a bit much.
She mentions throughout the book that she has lied about her age all of her life. She is one year older than she claims. Does she lie because she doesn’t want to admit that she was born in the last century? Seriously, one year, what’s the point? This was a book club book and I will be interested in what the other readers’ impressions are. For me, this book was two dimensional, almost like an advertisement, and I’m happy to be moving on to the next read.