This absolutely wonderful novel chronicles the lifetime of Lillian Boxfish, a woman in her 80s, as she looks back over her life and career as a pioneering woman in advertising...long before Mad Men came along.
Lillian, talking with her overbearing son by phone from her Manhattan apartment, proceeds from her dinner plans to a walk that will take her past haunts old and new. The time is December 31, 1984 – and New York has not yet entered the glossy, cleaned-up state it is in now. There is still a great deal of street crime, AIDS is rampant, and less than two weeks before, Bernhard Goetz had shot four Black teenagers in the subway, provoking outrage, fear, and anger, along with a city-wide debate on his actions, gun ownership (legal and otherwise) and causing great turmoil in general.
Through the night, Lillian traverses the city, interacts with the people she meets, and observes the sights and sounds around her. In between the chapters that describe her walk, she reminisces about her experiences as a young woman, who first came to New York in 1926, and never left.
I knew and well remember the New York of the 80s, having arrived in 1979. It was a little dangerous, you had to watch your back (literally) as you traversed the streets, but it was vibrant, alive, and quirky. This book brings that all back to me in the best of ways.
Lillian Boxfish recalls the life of Margaret Fishback, who began her career in advertising at Macy's, and ultimately went on to become the highest-paid woman in her field. She later became a published poet whose poetry appeared in the most prestigious magazines of the mid twentieth century, and later in anthologized volumes of her work.
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