NOW A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER “Transporting…witty, poignant and sparkling.” –People (People Picks Book of the Week) “Prescient and quick….A perfect fusing of subject and writer, idea and ideal.” –Chicago Tribune “Extraordinary…hilarious…Elegantly written, Rooney creates a glorious paean to a distant literary life and time–and an unabashed celebration of human connections that … an unabashed celebration of human connections that bridge past and future.
—Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed)
“Rooney’s delectably theatrical fictionalization is laced with strands of tart poetry and emulates the dark sparkle of Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Truman Capote. Effervescent with verve, wit, and heart, Rooney’s nimble novel celebrates insouciance, creativity, chance, and valor.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“In my reckless and undiscouraged youth,” Lillian Boxfish writes, “I worked in a walnut-paneled office thirteen floors above West Thirty-Fifth Street…”
She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy’s to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, “in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it.”
Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now–her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl–but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed–and has not.
A love letter to city life in all its guts and grandeur, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.
Lillian figures she might as well take her time. For now, after all, the night is still young.
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Formerly one of the top paid women ad execs in the country, the story follows 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish as taking a stroll through New York City on New Year’s Eve in 1984.
The chapters fluctuate between her walk and past moments in her life, including her prohibition era jaunts, her swoonworthy meet-cute with her future husband, and her battle with mental illness. Despite being an easy, light read, I felt like I learned a lot about so many different decades — like how disadvantaged women were in the workplace and how dangerous NYC was in the ’80s.
This is a novel very loosely based on a real woman who worked for Macy’s in the 1920s and 30s. I was completely enraptured with Lillian. I loved her walk through New York, a city I love to visit. I could have felt sorry for Lillian since she spends most of the book alone, but Lillian would have been disappointed in me if I had. Take a look. You’ll be glad you did.
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
By Kathleen Rooney
St. Martin’s Press
I liked Lillian Boxfish, and I love New York City. So, I liked her walk.
Lillian Boxfish knows a thing or two about a thing or two. The story was inspired, in part, by the life of Margaret Fishback, a poet and ad woman. In the 1930’s she was employed by R.H. Macy and was the highest-paid female copywriter in the world. Ms. Boxfish was proud of this and enjoyed her job.
In many ways, Lillian Boxfish was her job. The minute she could no longer work, due to pregnancy, her life changed drastically. It was a sign of the times, women had to leave their jobs if they were pregnant. However, Lillian was a rare bird. Her favorite people, her work family, were at R.H. Macy, and she was not.
For me, the best part of the story is her trek around the city, NYC. She walked everywhere and talked to everyone. It was just after her 85th birthday and she remembered the restaurants, automats, and vendors she’d visited in the past. She’d been invited to a New Year’s Eve party by a bohemian artist friend, Wendy. She flashes back to her younger days in the city as she wanders, looking for Wendy’s apartment.
I loved the author’s descriptions of Washington Square, Greenwich Village, and Times Square. I also loved that Lillian Boxfish ate a whole bag of Oreos before she set out on her walk. She’s eccentric, quirky, and often full of herself, but Ms. Boxfish is definitely a character, a character worth meeting. I recommend this novel, especially if you like New York City.
I loved this book so much that I wrote to the author.
I can’t get Lillian Boxfish out of my mind. The author, historian Kathleen Rooney, was so meticulous, dare I say reverent, in creating a fictional character based on the archives of Margaret Fishback, a hugely successful ad copywriter in NYC in the 30s. In this novel, set when Lillian is in her 80s, we meet a woman, still clever and sharp, who has continued to live in the city, to stay active, to change and grow with the times, but who has also had to face major set-backs in her life. I’m eager to reconstruct her 10-mile walk when I next visit NYC in June 2018. My favorite novel in several years–and I read a lot!
I enjoyed Lillian’s rambling walks…especially when she encountered someone and exchanged either pleasant or even aggressive conversation. She often appeared – the sage- by virtue of age and experience. Lillian had lived a full life and in her last years , life’s challenges , accomplishments and sorrows had coalesced into a contemplative confident woman. Her age did not deter her from rambling around the city that she loved . Though “her” New York neighborhood was wearied and sometimes very worn, she continued to travel it by her preferred mode – on foot. I think, Mrs. Boxfish would prove to be an interesting and engaging walking companion.
A fascinating journey with a fascinating woman. Thank you, Kathleen Rooney, for sharing Lillian Boxfish with the world!
This is a novel about an elderly woman who in NYE 1984 decides to take a walk around NYC, and reminisces about her life. She was a copywriter for Macy’s and a poet. She was married and divorced, and has one son, and some grandchildren. She thinks about the relationships of her past, her work, and decisions made throughout her life. The novel was inspired by Margaret Fishback, the real as copywriter for Macy’s, but is fictional and not a biography.
It was not a page turner. I enjoyed the back and forth trips to other time periods, her views of the city during her walk and that it was based on a real life woman. The work elements were interesting, but her personal life stories weren’t interesting to me. The ending was also a bit unbelievable and anti-climactic.
Great read with fascinating characters. It’s a walk through a city and a walk through time. I recommend it.
Lillian Boxfish is your guide to her very interesting life story as she guides you through present day New York, on foot. I loved it!
I have a genetic ability to close my left eyelid wile elevating my eyebrow that I’ve used throughout my life as a sort of punctuation. I can be sarcastic, incredulous, and ask wordless questions with remarkable attitude. I’ve never known what to call this, exactly, in answer to so many queries about how I do it.
But now I’ve read the delightful Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and learned how she “cocked a loaded eyebrow.” That nails it. The phrase is only a taste of the fun of this ingenious novel, loosely based on an actual famous woman advertising copywriter, author and society celebrity. It would have been a great story told straight, but Rooney instead makes Lillian a dedicated flaneur—a walker—who regularly strolls large swaths of the New York City she loves and is intrigued and inspired by. It’s how she gets her ideas for witty ad copy, for how people function, how the city—and life– works. Lillian is endlessly fascinated and fascinating—wise and witty and we get it all in a long walk on New Years Eve 1984 (a date that matches her age) as she strolls from dinner to party and back home, all the while reflecting on fame, family, life and age.
You’ll leave Lillian inspired to have as long and interesting a life, to turn daily encounters into adventures and to face it with great posture, panache and the right, signature shade of lipstick.
This delightful portrait of an utterly original older woman and her memories of a unique and surprising life from the 1930s to the 1980s was beautifully-written, often amusing, always remarkable, and finally quite moving. Highly recommended.
I loved this book. What drew me to it was the interesting art work on the cover. What a wonderful surprise to find the content was equally or even more interesting. Ms. Rooney takes the reader through the streets of New York, where the character spent her younger years. It is New Years Even and the character is now in her 80’s and reminisces with the reader as if we are walking into her favorite places together. I especially liked the strength of character and her ability to show her independence throughout the novel. Thank you so much Ms. Rooney!
This haunting, beautifully-written novel is based on the life of Margaret Fishback, who wrote ads for Macy’s and was the the highest paid copywriter in the 1930’s. Now in her mid-eighties, Lillian walks through Manhattan on New Year’s Eve 1984, reminiscing about her life. She falls in love and marries, giving up her career, fame and fortune. Though life is not happily ever after, Lillian endures. She appreciate what she has and remains an admirable figure.
This book was inspired by the life of Margaret Fishback, a woman who was the highest paid advertising executive in the country, as well as a poet and author, in the 1930’s. It’s an extremely poignant, bittersweet story that brought me to tears on more than one occasion as I read the character’s musings on her life from her early success to coming to terms with growing old and no longer feeling relevant. I can’t say that it has a happy ending, but it has a realistic one. I found it a compelling read and recommend it to anyone looking for something out of the ordinary.
Delightful in so many ways. I loved the story for it’s elegant portrayal of Lillian’s life, it’s revelation of the city she loved (New York), it’s delightful turn of phrase, (eg “The bulb of every shepherd’s-crook lamppost has been cracked by some meticulous hoodlum.”) and it’s wisdom (eg “The point of living in the world is to stay interested.”).
This book proved to hold more than I expected. Kudos to Rooney for her adroit story telling.
BLURB:
“In my reckless and undiscouraged youth,” Lillian Boxfish writes, “I worked in a walnut-paneled office thirteen floors above West Thirty-Fifth Street…”
She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy’s to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, “in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it.”
Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now―her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl―but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed―and has not.
A love letter to city life in all its guts and grandeur, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.
Lillian figures she might as well take her time. For now, after all, the night is still young.
http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com
Lillian Boxfish at age 85 takes a walk through NYC on New Year’s Eve. While she walks she thinks about her life. She was the highest paid woman copywriter in the world in the 1930s. She was also wrote several volumes of poetry. She had an interesting life with both ups and downs.
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk was a recent airport bookstore find. I was sold on the idea of a little old lady, a retired ad exec from the days when women simply didn’t work, reminiscing about her life as she walked through miles of New York City on New Year’s Eve 1984. Ultimately, I found the premise more enticing than the execution; or, perhaps I found Lillian slightly lacking, at least in comparison to other geriatric protagonists (take a bow, Ove and Hendrik).
Kathleen Rooney is a fine writer, and she does a lovely job placing Lillian in mid-80s New York – grit, crime, AIDS, the soaring Twin Towers – it’s all there for the reader’s pleasure. I just found Lillian a bit too…abrasive? Sure of herself? Odd? I’ll let you determine whether and how her character is deficient (also: it could just be me), but I had a hard time caring about either her past, or the events unfolding before her on NYE. Correction: I didn’t care. The book was short, the writing was snappy, the flight was long, and in the end I was determined to finish. My life is no better for the decision, though.
Two stars (one each for good writing and entrancing cityscapes).
(This review was originally published at https://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/05/lillian-boxfish-takes-walk.html)
so, this is a story about an elderly woman looking back on her life. While there are aspects of her memories that are entertaining, some of it seems so preposterous. While it may offer inspiration, I found it to be clear that we are not really meant to have it all