Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk: A Novel

Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk: A Novel

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 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.ReviewA NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLERPowell?s Best Books of 2017Audible Best Books of 2017?Irresistible...funny and touching....This witty and heartfelt ode to a city, to its infinite variety, to its melting pot of citizens not only enchants but offers an important lesson: that human connections and work are what give life meaning.??Boston Globe?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?Lillian?s wide-ranging meditations are reason enough to read this charming novel, but it?s also like taking a street-level tour through six decades of New York.??New York Times ?I love this book....Just wonderful....A picture of a woman who tried and succeeded in making it in what was a man?s profession." ?Nancy Pearl?Extraordinary?hilarious?Elegantly written, Rooney creates a glorious paean to a distant literary life and time?and 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)?Effervescent?steeped in humanity and wit.??The Christian Science Monitor (10 Best Books of January)?Needle-sharp....A delightful stroll with a colorful character.??Library Journal (starred review)"If you haven?t read Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, you?ll want to rectify that immediately. It is tart and charming and might make you miss your Nanna." ?Jennifer Weiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author?Enchanting?.[Rooney] is clearly in