On the last day of 1984,
85-year-old Lillian Boxfish goes for a 10-mile walk in New York City. In many ways it is a walk down memory lane as
she revisits places that have been important in her life. She interacts with a number of people she
encounters but most of her time is spent in memories of her life in the
city.
Lillian had always wanted to be a
career woman and she became a successful one:
she got a job in Macy’s department store and became “the highest-paid
advertising woman in America.” She was
also a poet who published a number of books; in many of her poems she scoffed
at romantic love but then fell in love at first sight. Though she seems to have led a glamorous life
and strived to enjoy life, she also had her personal struggles. She points out that “Happiness and a love of
fun are not coextensive, and their relationship may even be divergent. If one were happy, then one might stay in with a book, say, and not go out
hunting for fun.”
Lillian is a very likeable
character. She is intelligent, witty, and
fiercely independent. She has an
indefatigable zest for life. Even as an
old woman, she enjoys meeting people of different ages and from various walks of
life. A rebellious streak means she
doesn’t conform to expectations, though she is always graceful and
dignified. She believes that, “The point
of living in the world is just to stay interested.” One cannot but admire her as she emerged from
a very difficult time, has maintained her enjoyment of life, and makes no
apologies for “a life that privileged pleasure, poise, and politesse.”
Having lived to an advanced age, she
has learned some lessons which she passes on:
“it wasn’t that happiness led to humor, but more that humor could lead,
perhaps, to happiness – that an eye for the absurd could keep one active in one’s
despair, the opposite of depressed:
static and passive.” She also
advises, “’Do whatever you want. Anyone
who tells you you shouldn’t is trying to sell you something.’”
The book touches on a number of
topics: racism, the AIDS crisis, women’s
rights, and ageism. For example, though
she was a great asset to Macy’s, once she became pregnant, she had to leave her
job: “the solid rock upon which my
success was built turned out to be a snow heap and melted, melted.”
She also realized that though she’d
had a remarkable career, her successes “had done nothing to change [Macy’s] in
any real way.” The glass ceiling was
intact: she “was a novelty, not a
paragon.”
Books with older characters
looking back at their lives appeal to me, and this one didn’t disappoint. Its conversational tone makes it an easy
read. After a number of serious books, I
wanted something light and charming.
This book is certainly the latter but it does have substance.
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