"Whenever I wake up next to a man, before I'm fully awake, I think it's Ted. Of course it never is." These two sentences open Lillian on Life, Alison Jean Lester's compelling debut novel, in which a post-menopausal woman recounts her own profound life story and a series of love affairs that ultimately shaped her independence, feminist ideals and destiny. Over the course of 24 vignette-like chapters, Lillian reflects on what she's learned about living and loving--and resilience. Her stream-of-consciousness time line highlights her formative years in Columbia, Mo., growing up in a conservative family during the 1930s and 1940s; her maturation when she left home to study at Vassar; and the years she spent in search of herself, working abroad and ultimately landing a job with a newswire service that took her to New York.
Lillian recalls rich, insightful details, namely those about the men--some single, some married--with whom she indulged her passions on the way to meeting her true love, Ted, in the 1970s. The poignancy of hard-earned wisdom and clever, random wit infuse chapters with titles like "On Getting to Sex," "On One Night Stands," "On Fate" and "On What Happens Next."
The inventive structure of Lester's novel makes the confessional nature of Lillian's first-person narrative all the more appealing, granting readers an intimate glimpse into the heart, mind and yearnings of a daring woman who defied generational expectations and proved unafraid to live a life that suited her needs and desires despite the demands of convention. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines