Gilman’s Dickensian description of the Lower East Side of the early-20th century conjures up the intensity of such classics as The Rise of David Levinsky or Call it Sleep. Reviled by the press and under indictment for a series of charges, some trumped-up, some true, the titular Ice Queen reviews her life, from escaping the pogroms in 1913 to meeting President and Mamie Eisenhower at the White House.īut Lillian is no Forrest Gump she’s sometimes admirable, often despicable, but always smart and interesting. We first meet the self-described “weisenheimer,” now the elderly doyenne of an ice-cream empire, in the booming 1980s. A combination of Leona Helmsley, Tom Carvel and Becky Sharp, with a hint of Joan Rivers, our heroine embodies the best and worst traits of each. Lillian Dunkle (née Malka Treynovsky), the picaresque heroine handicapped by poverty and a crushed leg, is neither pretty nor likeable, but in the tradition of the hardscrabble American rags-to-riches entrepreneur, she’s smartly indomitable and emboldened by obstacles. 20 as part of the JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest. New York Times bestselling novelist Gilman will discuss her book on Oct. From the reeking slums of the Lower East Side to the rarefied air of Park Avenue and Palm Beach, Susan Jane Gilman’s The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street is a tart page-turner across the 20th-century Jewish American experience.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |