Lillian Dunkle would rather have a cocktail than an ice cream cone. The "delicious female anti-hero" Susan Jane Gilman envisioned writing about came to life when she happened on the perfect back story to entwine with such a commanding character.
After reminiscing with a friend about Carvel ice cream, a favorite childhood treat, Gilman began researching the company and discovered that its founder was a poor Greek immigrant whose successful business started with an ice cream truck. She even spent time learning the trade by working at a Carvel franchise.
Gilman then took creative license. "In general, ice cream makers are really nice people making a wonderful, sweet product that everyone loves," she said. "As a novelist that held no interest for me, writing about a nice person who makes a nice product and succeeds. I wanted to write about somebody who was complex and difficult. Lillian is old, she's crippled, she's difficult, she's profane, she's funny, and her story--and the story of ice cream--spans the 20th century."
A twist on the epic rags-to-riches saga, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street follows Lillian as she transcends her hardscrabble childhood to become the most popular ice cream maker in America, only to risk losing it all. Original, imaginative and broad in scope, the novel unfolds over 70 years, closely linking Lillian's story to the course of U.S. history, from Prohibition through World War II to the disco days of Studio 54.
Writing a novel has been a lifelong aspiration for Gilman, who has three nonfiction titles to her credit--Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess, Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless and Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir. Written in reaction to various cultural aspects, those books "came as a surprise to me," said Gilman, who has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and has published award-winning short fiction. "My vision for myself since I was very young, like eight or nine, was to tell fictional stories."
The debut novelist dedicated The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street to her friend, the late Frank McCourt. Before he shot to fame with the memoir Angela's Ashes, McCourt was Gilman's high school English teacher and mentor. With his encouragement, as a teenager she submitted what became her first published piece to the Village Voice. When she went off to college, McCourt wrote her a letter and offered her some inspiring advice: "Let your pen rip across the page."