from the reviews ...
The first of many astonishing revelations in "The Red Leather Diary" is that as recently as 2003, when one would think that the real estate boom would have scavenged, inventoried, emptied and renovated every inch in every building in Manhattan, the basement of a large pre-war apartment building divulged heaps of steamer trunks and their contents abandoned by long departed generations. Lily Koppel, a young New York Times reporter subletting a room in one of those cherished roomy apartments out of the past came home one day to find the management hauling the trunks to the dumpster to make room for an exercise facility. Just before the flea market vendors descended on the trove, Lily escaped with a few keepsakes, including a flapper dress and a red leather diary that had been kept daily by a precocious teen named Florence Wolfson from her 14th birthday in 1929 until her 19th in 1934.
The most wonderful revelation--and this is not a spoiler--is that in 2005, with the help of a private investigator, Lily found the nonagenarian Florence quite alive and living independently in Connecticut and Florida. Florence contributes the introduction to this book. The diary entries and her sharp memories offer up an immediate record of the cultural and social whirlwind life in New York as lived by a young, privileged woman, the daughter of immigrants. The Florence of 1929 - 1934 loved life and grabbed it. She was passionate about the arts, literature and love of all kinds. She emerges as a female Zelig, turning up at significant events in the company of some memorable names, like actress Eva LeGallienne, poet Delmore Schwartz, future author Bel Kauffman ("Up the Down Staircase") and Joy Davidman, whose marriage to C.S. Lewis would be portrayed in the film "Shadowlands." Some episodes of her post-diary life include the intellectual salon she hosted in her parents' apartment and a trip to Europe in the tense years leading up to World War II.
Koppel tells the story like memories rushing out and piling up, sometimes a little chaotically or disjointedly, but that's okay because that's what memories do. She builds a complete and true world that is difficult to give up when the book ends.
The first of many astonishing revelations in "The Red Leather Diary" is that as recently as 2003, when one would think that the real estate boom would have scavenged, inventoried, emptied and renovated every inch in every building in Manhattan, the basement of a large pre-war apartment building divulged heaps of steamer trunks and their contents abandoned by long departed generations. Lily Koppel, a young New York Times reporter subletting a room in one of those cherished roomy apartments out of the past came home one day to find the management hauling the trunks to the dumpster to make room for an exercise facility. Just before the flea market vendors descended on the trove, Lily escaped with a few keepsakes, including a flapper dress and a red leather diary that had been kept daily by a precocious teen named Florence Wolfson from her 14th birthday in 1929 until her 19th in 1934.
The most wonderful revelation--and this is not a spoiler--is that in 2005, with the help of a private investigator, Lily found the nonagenarian Florence quite alive and living independently in Connecticut and Florida. Florence contributes the introduction to this book. The diary entries and her sharp memories offer up an immediate record of the cultural and social whirlwind life in New York as lived by a young, privileged woman, the daughter of immigrants. The Florence of 1929 - 1934 loved life and grabbed it. She was passionate about the arts, literature and love of all kinds. She emerges as a female Zelig, turning up at significant events in the company of some memorable names, like actress Eva LeGallienne, poet Delmore Schwartz, future author Bel Kauffman ("Up the Down Staircase") and Joy Davidman, whose marriage to C.S. Lewis would be portrayed in the film "Shadowlands." Some episodes of her post-diary life include the intellectual salon she hosted in her parents' apartment and a trip to Europe in the tense years leading up to World War II.
Koppel tells the story like memories rushing out and piling up, sometimes a little chaotically or disjointedly, but that's okay because that's what memories do. She builds a complete and true world that is difficult to give up when the book ends.
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