Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney. St. Martin’s Press, 2016

It’s New Year’s Eve of 1984, and 85 year old Lillian Boxfish is taking one of her long walks through New York City. She hit New York young; she wanted out from under the thumb of her family in D.C., and she wanted the exciting life of the big city. She soon was hired by Macy’s, writing distinctive ad copy, as well as publishing books of poems. She made quite a lot of money, despite not being paid nearly as much as the male ad writers.

As Lillian walks, the cityscape brings back memories of her long life. Here was the tiny apartment she and her best friend shared, where they partied constantly. Here’s the ladies only hotel she lived in while saving up for said apartment. Here’s Macy’s, where she worked up until she became pregnant and became persona non grata. Here’s the park, the Hudson, the restaurants. The hospital where she was taken when she had a breakdown.

The story is not just an autobiography of Lillian, but a paean to the city and its evolution. I came to love “listening” to Lillian tell her story, like sitting down to tea or cocktails with a really tough but nice woman, who spans the time from Prohibition and speakeasies to the 80s AIDS epidemic. Lillian is witty and arch, as if sitting at the Algonquin Round Table. The only thing I found odd was that everyone was so friendly and accommodating; after hearing for decades how rough and gruff New Yorkers are, it was odd to find even the muggers being nice.

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Lotus, by Lijia Zhang. Henry Holt and Company, 2017

Lotus is the nom de guerre of a young woman from rural China, who left the village to seek better employment in the factories. On her deathbed, her mother had told her to take care of her younger brother; she intends to make money to support the family and send her brother to high school and university. After her cousin dies in a factory fire- the building locked to prevent workers from escaping- she moves on to the city. Here she soon finds herself working as a ji- a sex worker- in a low rent massage parlor. She sends virtually all her money home, telling her family she is waiting tables and earning big tips.

Bing is a photographer. He’s a middle class, middle aged man who couldn’t hack the business world of modern China. He wants to both make a difference in the world, and do something creative. He finds his calling in photojournalism, taking photos of the ji, especially Lotus, and telling their stories, which are not pretty stories. One of Lotus’s co-workers is not even 14; one is supporting her developmentally disabled son; another is supporting a low-life boyfriend who takes her for one abortion after another.

While the main focus is on Lotus and the development of her character as she navigates the perils of her life, it’s Bing’s coming of age, too, despite his age. I enjoyed watching them evolve and grow- and not end up in the place I thought they would. The descriptions of people and place are vivid and the divide between the privileged middle class and the poor is achingly exposed. The writing is a bit rough at times, but the reader has to remember that English is not Zhang’s first language and she wrote directly in it- this is not a translation. Four stars out of five- I’d give four and a half if Amazon would let me! 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from the Amazon Vine program in return for a fair review. 

Neither of these things influenced my review.  

Theda Bara, My Mentor: Under the Wing of Hollywood’s First Femme Fatale, by Joan Craig with Beverly F. Stout. McFarland & Company, Inc. 2016

Joan Craig grew up living across the street from silent film star Theda Bara, and the two pretty much instantly connected when they met, introduced by Bara’s husband who had cut a rose for Joan as she walked past on her way to school. Bara had no children of her own, and Joan’s mother seems to have been a bit absent minded about her child, so Joan ended up spending a lot of time with Bara and her husband, director Charles Brabin. Although Bara’s acting days were over by the time they met, she had kept a lot of costumes and props from her movies and lived among them in her house. She kept a crystal ball and scryed with it regularly. She was far from being the vamp she frequently portrayed on the screen.

I’m of two minds about this book. On the one hand, it’s filled with great pictures and in the back is a listing of the plots of all of Bara’s films, most of which were lost in a fire. On the other hand, it’s only the bare bones of a biography or memoir. Barely a hundred pages are devoted to Joan and Bara’s relationship, touching on the high points, and part of it is a short bio of Bara before Joan met her. I would have loved to have known what Bara was like- what did they talk about? How did Bara spend her days? What were her interests? How did she mentor her- what things did she teach her (a few examples are given in the book)? I can only give the book three of out five stars- it’s a great addition to the information available about Bara, but certainly not the first book one would want to go to.

The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

I received this book free from the Library Thing Early Reviewers  program in return for a fair review. 

Neither of these things affected my review or opinion.