Saint Mazie: A Novel

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for review on my blog. Based on a real person, Saint Mazie is the story of one of those quintessential New York characters who is famous just for being herself. She's a troublemaker in her youth, constantly yearning for adventure and spurning the notion of settling down, but she has a good heart. She's totally selfish in some ways and selfless in others. "Queen of the Bowery" would have been another good title for this one because that's what Mazie was. I loved that the story is told from the perspective of a documentarian doing research using Mazie's diary entries supplemented with present day interviews of people who knew her, their relatives, and historians familiar with that time period. The short snippets and frequent changes of perspective make this a quick read despite the fact that there isn't a ton of action. Saint Mazie is a fun story about an exotic woman living in an interesting time and would make a great beach read. Check out my blog, Sarah's Book Shelves, for more reviews.

Having been to New York recently, we visited the Tenement Museum. We found the story of the immigrants of the Lower Eastside quite fascinating. Being of the age to hear from my grandparents and parents about the Great Depression and watching movies of the wild days of the "flappers", I really wanted something to flesh out the entire period. In Saint Mazie, I found it all. I loved that it focused on one woman navigating her way through those years and how life changed for her as life changed about her. The book is organized in an unusual way with the voices of many contributing to the understanding of the story of just one person...Mazie. But through Mazie, we meet her damaged family, the lively men of her youth, the young nun, and the bums she tried to save. It starts with a roar and ends with a sigh. Loved this book! Loved Saint Mazie!

This novel by Jami Attenberg is based on Mazie Gordon who was the real life “Queen of the Bowery” in New York City in the first half of the twentieth century. She’s bold and brassy. She smokes and drinks and doesn’t care what anyone says about her (at least she pretends not to care). Her older sister, Rosie, rescued Mazie and Jeanie from their father, who was abusive, so Mazie and Jeanie are mostly raised by Rosie, who is distraught at her inability to have children of her own. It might be for the best because she’s not the most mentally stable character. When Jeanie runs off, Mazie is stuck trying to hold what’s left of their family together. It’s not easy, but Mazie doesn’t have anywhere else to go and she knows she can’t abandon her sister, so she stays and does what she can. She goes out drinking occasionally, but Rosie gets so upset when Mazie stays out late, that she doesn’t do it often. She does it much more early on in the book, as a teenager, than she does later. Rosie decides Mazie should work the ticket counter at the theater her husband, Louis Gordon, owns. Mazie refers to it as her cage for the rest of the book, but she also talks about everything she sees while in that cage. She meets a nun named Sister Tee and they become best friends (which is ironic, considering Mazie is a nonpracticing Jew). Sister Tee is the first one to get Mazie started on her philanthropic pursuits. Louis makes plenty of money through various businesses, many of which Mazie and Rosie know absolutely nothing about. It is assumed they are not entirely legal. In any case, Mazie is not exactly rich, but she’s not starving either. She has money to give away and when Sister Tee asks Mazie for money, Mazie can never turn her down. After Sister Tee and Louis die, Mazie finds herself with a very large pile of cash from Louis’s various “business partners”. She knows it’s dirty money and Rosie is throwing it away on gypsies who will con her out of everything she owns. After a few months, Mazie takes all the money Rosie hasn’t spent yet and sets up a donation for women and children who need shelter from abusive homes. The book starts around 1917, when Mazie is just ten years old. It covers Prohibition (when no one, including Mazie, gives up drinking) and the Great Depression, when Mazie runs the theater at a loss just so they don’t have to turn out their employees. She also uses it to give the “bums” with nowhere to go someplace warm to sleep for a few hours. The book ends when Mazie is only in her mid-thirties, but she’s been through so much she seems much older. At several points I had to stop and remind myself she was only about my age. I loved the way the book was written. The premise is this person has been given Mazie’s diary, and having read it, she’s conducting interviews on people who knew her and people who live in the area and know something about her so she can find out anything she can about Mazie. About half of the story is told in the form of Mazie’s diary entries. Interspersed between the diary entries are excerpts of interviews with those who knew her personally or grew up hearing stories about her. I loved Mazie, but I also loved the way the story managed to show a hint of what was going on with all these other people, even those who didn’t know Mazie. There’s a hint of something romantic going on between the man who found the diary, the person conducting the interviews, and a history teacher who’s being interviewed. Mazie’s life takes center stage, but everyone gets their shot at the limelight, including Mazie’s sister, Jeanie, who writes a couple of her own entries in Mazie’s diary. It’s a fascinating time in our country’s history and the book makes for a quick read. I was able to get through the first quarter of it in about two hours, even with two toddlers screaming nonstop in front of and behind me.

Loved Mazie from the beginning. And I wanted her to have a man all her own as that is what she was looking for. As readers we become entangled in the lives of the characters. We wish them well. We hope they will get their comeuppance, as in some of Mazie's friends. But as Mazie moves through each November and another birthday passes, we are gathered into her endeavors to help "the bums". There are mental images posted in the author's writing so that the reader can truly imagine the Bowery and environs and how difficult it all was. Good reading. Good characters. And I am still wondering how Mazie was able to tack so many postcards in her cage!

I loved Mazie. She was a fascinating character who loved the city and its energy. Her feeling for those of us who fall in the cracks, especially men informed her whole life. Her relationship with the city, her dedication to family and the people of New York City is truly a love affair. The interplay between the diary as a first person account and either interviews or fiction was well constructed. The movement of the read flowed well; the historical vibrancy demands constant response...and Mazie responds from her broken heart with compassion and an urgency that was profound. This book is a reminder that we all can reach out right where we live with respect, compassion and love. Read this book. It will inspire, educate, entertain and invite you to change your view on "saints". d

In 1940, Joseph Mitchell, a writer for The New Yorker, wrote an essay that featured a woman named Mazie Gordon. Now, Jamie Attenberg writes a story giving Mazie Phillips Gordon a new twist. Most of the story is told through Mazie's entries in her diary. She began her diary on November 1, 1907. She was given the diary on her tenth birthday. Ninety years after she began her diary, it was discovered by a documentarian. Who was Mazie Phillips? Aside from Mazie, there are other people from the past who fill in the blanks. Mazie and her two sisters, Rosie, the eldest, and Jeanie, the youngest, were abused by their father and living in poverty in Boston. It was when Rosie met Louis Gordon at the racetrack that they fell in love. Shortly after, they married. When they returned from their honeymoon, Rosie stopped at her parent's home to pick up her two little sisters and brought them to New York. Mazie called her father a rat and her mother a simp. Louis was a businessman and owned the Venus Theater and the concession. When Mazie was in her teens, she became a party girl. It was the Jazz Age and Mazie was a free spirit with no inhibitions. She did what she wanted and when she wanted to do it. She had no borders. She flirted, drank, smoked and slept with men. Mazie lived in the present. She had no plans for her future. She was street wise and could have made a good life for herself. When Rosie could no longer control her, Louis had a talk with her. He told her he needed help at the theater and asked Mazie to work at the ticket booth until things improved. He trusted her and knew she was good with numbers. It would only be for a short time. Mazie couldn't refuse Louis. Rudy was an employee at the theater. He was in charge of movie selection, managing the staff, concessions and the general care of the theater. He was the manager and did his work well. He was very close to Mazie and was always there in times of need. As a ticket seller, she met many people. She met her first love, a Captain, who she had a one night stand with. He continued to visit her whenever he could get away from his travels. He sent her postcards regularly, which she hung up in her booth. He loved her and wanted to marry her. She made friends with a Catholic nun, named Sister Tee. They were friends for years. Sister Tee worked for the good of the poor and when she needed financial help, Mazie took money from the till to help out. In the meantime, Rosie was struggling with her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She couldn't stop cleaning her kitchen. With time, her condition worsened. When Jeanie became a teenager, she left home to work as a dancer for Belle Baker, who had a new show on the Bowery. No good came out of that. One day, Louis spoke with Mazie and told her he had other businesses that kept him busy and would like to sign over the theater to her. She was very capable in running the theater and for tax reasons, he would make her the owner. From the Jazz Age through Prohibition and into the Great Depression, Mazie saw food stamps being handed out, breadlines and businessmen jumping out of buildings. She told Rudy that she would open the doors to the men on the Bowery giving them shelter. Rudy was against that idea, because no one would want to go to the theater if bums and drunks were welcomed. That didn't stop her. Mazie's heart was as big as New York. She was the Queen of the Bowery and knew every inch of it. She loved the Bowery people and fitted in perfectly. There is so much more to this story. There are twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat wanting more. Jami Attenberg's twist on Mazie is outstanding. Mazie's character jumps off the page. She is so full of energy and so lovable. I loved the story written in Jami Attenberg's style. I loved the characters, especially Mazie. I could have read on and on. It was that good. I must add that I loved the jacket of this book. It captured my interest. Saint Mazie is a WINNER.