Pic by Franzi.
Since I read Every Woman Loves A Russian Poet, I am on the hunt after novels starring independent women struggling to be content with themselves and realizing their dreams. One may guess that the book shops are full of them but it isn’t the case at all. Luckily, I recently stumbled over the book Lola Bensky by Lily Brett, a German-born Australian writer who lives now in New York. In her novel she describes the life of Lola Bensky … and thereby intervenes her own life story with the one of her main character.
At the beginning of the story Lola Bensky is 19 years old, struggling with her weight… and interviewing Jimmy Hendrix for an Australian music zine. As a music journalist (like Lilly Brett herself was at this age) she also speaks with all the other big names of the 1960s – Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass… But what really occupies her thought – aside from diets and her weight – is the past: Lola (like Lilly Brett) is the child of Jews who survived the concentration camp Auschwitz but lost all their relatives and were haunted by the things they experienced for the rest of their lives.
Lola’s story spans from the 1960s until the present. During these decades she has to deal a lot with herself, with her talent, her family … and lots of music heroes! The book is written in a really wonderful way and I would recommend it to all the independent women out there!
I wish you a wonderful weekend with lots of lazy reading-hours under the spring sun!
Like always: All credits appear after clicking the links. If you are interested in putting ads on My so-called Luck feel free to email me for details.