Malka Bialystoker is a young
Russian-Jewish immigrant girl out looking for her wandering father in the early
1910s in New York when disaster strikes.
She is run over by a cart selling ices and her life takes a dramatic
turn. Severely injured she is
hospitalized and abandoned by her family.
The man who hit her feels guilty and takes the young girl in making her
part of the family and changing her name to Lillian Maria Dinello. As part of this new Catholic Italian family
she learns the family business, first making flavored ices, then ice
cream. Lillian later marries and helps
create an ice cream empire, one that is now crashing down around her in the
1980s amid scandal.
This is the story of an enterprising
woman trying to assert her authority and business acumen in a time when women
were shoved to the background. She is
smart, savvy and an amazing risk taker and following her story, and the story
of her ice cream empire, is a joy. I
knew right off that things aren’t going well in 1980s (the present in this
tale), a trial is looming, but that is only part of the reason I kept reading,
wanting to know the source of the scandal.
I just wanted to see Lillian, this scrappy, conniving and amazing young
woman grow up.
After reading what the book was about
I didn’t think this would be my flavor.
Then I remembered enjoying Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, a
memoir by the author. Lillian is a real
character. You love not liking her all
the time, you respect her ruthlessness and she has such a refreshingly no
nonsense non-apologetic voice it’s great fun to read. I devoured this book, like my favorite cone
of coffee ice cream with multi-colored sprinkles. I did eat quite a bit of Umlaut ice cream
(read the book and you’ll understand) while reading this novel so make sure you
have a pint or two handy!
