“An upside-down, funhouse treat. You’ll lick it up.” – USA Today In 1913, little Malka Treynovsky flees Russia with her family. Bedazzled by tales of gold and movie stardom, she tricks them into buying tickets for America. Yet no sooner do they land on the squalid Lower East Side of Manhattan when Malka is crippled and abandoned in the street. Taken in by an Italian ices peddler, she manages to … Italian ices peddler, she manages to survive through cunning and inventiveness. As she learns the secrets of his trade, she begins to shape her own destiny. She falls in love with a gorgeous, illiterate radical named Albert, and they set off across America in an ice cream truck. Slowly, she transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, “The Ice Cream Queen” — doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated television personality.
Yet Lillian Dunkle is nothing like the whimsical motherly persona she crafts for herself in the media. Conniving, profane, and irreverent, she is a supremely complex woman who prefers a good stiff drink to an ice cream cone. And when her past begins to catch up with her, everything she has spent her life building will be at stake.more
This is one of those rare novels where the story itself is just as delectable as the title. I am a big fan of novels set in the early 1900s, and not just for the obvious reasons. These authors often have this brilliant way of teasing out a story or profession one never would have known about and exploring it. Susan Jane Gilman does that here. This novel is both a fascinating portrait of the ice cream industry and a compelling look at a woman who came to this country with nothing and struggled to make something of herself.
While that last bit might seem a bit typical, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street is anything but. This tale’s protagonist, Lillian Dunkle, is a rare gem of a character. She isn’t always easy to like. At times she is even unpleasant, but she is authentic. You truly believe she has been molded by her circumstances and her experiences. She is real.
With rich characters and a few delicious treats, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street doesn’t disappoint. Not one bit.
There are magical moments in this immigrant “American Dream” story that begins with the arrival of Malka Treynovsky in 1913 at Ellis Island. Gilman’s recreation of lower East Side Manhattan is remarkable and deftly painted. It’s easy to imagine the squalor, the heartbreak, the struggles of adapting to a new homeland. The beginning of the book is a mesmerizing journey, filled with beautifully created characters. The transformation of Malka Treynovsky to Lillian Dunkle and her building of an ice cream empire is spellbinding. However, it is unfortunate that Mrs. Dunkle never rises to become an endearing character. When a character is flawed, it gives reality to a story, but for the central character to be so unlikeable completely delegitimizes our caring for her. For example, no matter the reasons for murder, nothing can erase the fact that a person can choose whether to commit that murder. Once done, there is no way back. In Lillian’s case, she has countless reasons for her selfishness, self-serving actions, and the coldness of her attitudes. With Lillian, we are left wondering where her heart is? And why should I care about her?
Her father’s transformation is even more unsettling. He was a schlemiel from the start, but as the story continues, he does things that take him out of the realm of believability. Once I lost that thread, the story became more challenging to endure.
Still, for all of its faults, this is a good read with lots of historical shading. I found myself wanting to find out what would happen next. The history of ice cream and its development as an American passion was fantastically threaded throughout, and the spectacular rise of a cunning woman in a world that subjugated women to the backseat and second-class citizenship was powerfully portrayed, but this reader’s connection to the characters was never strong.
I read this when I was 10 or 11, and while it was hard for me to understand, even then I knew it was a realistic, well-written, beautiful story. Now, 5 1/2 years later, these feelings have only grown stronger, and this book has become one of my all-time favorites.
I absolutely loved this wonderful historical fiction novel, and highly recommend it.
Loved, loved, loved the narrated version of this book, told by the author herself.
A rags to riches story from the perspective of the narrator, a Russian immigrant, who ends up in New York City. The book spans her life of more than 70 years and the events that occurred in the United States during this time period. Especially enjoyable for New Yorkers with either a Jewish or Italian background.
As a general rule, I tend to read much more non-fiction than novels, but I’ve been on a roll with fiction this summer and Susan Jane Gilman’s The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street definitely falls in the category of great fiction. (Villa Triste and Elizabeth Is Missing are the other wonderful novels I’ve read recently.)
Five-year-old Malka Treynovsky arrives in New York in 1913, one of the huddled Eastern European Jewish masses yearning to breathe free. Her family wasn’t even supposed to come to America, but now that they’re here, Malka is determined to find her happy ending. Three months later she’s crippled in an accident with an Italian ices peddler and abandoned. Taken in by the peddler’s family, Malka becomes Lillian and forges a new identity and life for herself.
Lillian marries the handsome but illiterate Albert Dunkle, and the two of them build an empire of ice cream shops starting with a single truck. Soon, Lillian is the head of an ice cream empire and a celebrity in her own right, which is wonderful for her right up until it isn’t: when she finds herself on trial for both tax evasion and assault. In the midst of this double ordeal, Lillian has decided to share her ordeal with us, darlings, and her voice is what makes Ice Cream Queen the masterpiece that it is. Part Jewish immigrant, part Italian immigrant, and with more than a touch of megalomania, Lillian’s gravelly, no-nonsense voice is still ringing in my ears.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2014/08/the-ice-cream-queen-of-orchard-street.html)
Great period piece of the early 1900 immigration rag to riches tale.. A little reminiscent iof Howard fast with a dash of Taylor CaldwellS’ work thrown i for good measure without coming off as copying either one.The main character is a strong woman and the plot involves lots of ice cream.What’s not to like?