Kathleen Rooney: Lillian Boxfish takes a walk, St. Martin’s Press, 9781250137609, paperback, January 2017

Kathleen Ronney’s novel “Lillian Boxfish takes a walk” was inspired by the real life of Margaret Fishback, a female advertising pioneer in the 30ties working for Macy’s in New York, a highly unusual woman drawing one of the highest salaries in her days as Kathleen Ronney writes in her afterword.

While reading I fell for Lillian Boxfish, I loved her sharp wit and pioneering spirit so unusual for most women in her days, never aspiring to marry but to remain independent working for her own living.  She took me on a walk through her life and I often felt we shared similarities, having a little bit of Lillian Boxfish in me. We probably all do, at least I found myself in some of her actions more than once, the passion for walking being one of them. Reading this witty, sometimes sentimental but yet funny book felt also a little bit like being in a Woody Allen movie, all set in New York.

When Lillian Boxfish decides to set off on a New Year’s Eve walk in her mink coat in 1984 she is 84, walking having been one of her passions, often rescuing her in troubled times. As she heads off on her 10  mile walk taking her from her Murray Hill apartment down to the tip of Manhattan and back, she encounters new people through chance meetings, always with the aim to walk to a bodega and Delmonico’s, a restaurant where she has dined on New Year’s Eve for many years of her life. 

With each episode, she reminisces and puts pieces of the puzzle called life together, remembering  what shaped her life and the people and emotions that mattered: Max, the love of her life, her beloved son, her best friend Helen and her success as an author and advertising great at Macy’s, her love for New York. And ultimately her great sorrow of losing friends, love and acquaintances as she ages but never feeling sorry for herself retaining her spunk and spirit, remaining  curious about the next encounter.

The quality of writing, the witty sentences were a great delight and as I read on,
I fell in love with the young and old Lilian Boxfish, what a fabulous entertaining read.