Susan Jane GilmanReseñas

I was kind of disappointed with this book. It didn't really keep my attention. I didn't connect with the main character at all. I honestly pushed myself to finish it. I might give this author another try in the future.

Started so promising, then got mired in pretty ridiculous scenarios. The last third was really disappointing.

Well balanced, this book brings humor, challenge, relationships and family in the form of a well paced story. It launches with a bang when Donna comes home early from a sales conference to find her husband dressed as a French maid while an unknown Dominatrix hovers over him. Formerly a Punk Rocker, her journey reinvigorates her past life. Her friends run the gamut, the journey's filled with surprises and the author's sense of humor filters throughout it. Tragic at times, its engaging and evocative and a must read for mothers, former musicians and anyone seeking a great story.

It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as the title makes it out to be.

Sweet book with a great main character. Goes down smooth.

The writing's perfectly sound but, ugh! These middle-age coming-of-age tales leave me bored. I'm not going to pretend I read all of this; I read the beginning and the end and skipped over most of the middle. Its funny in an absurdist way and I can see how someone might like it more than I did.

Thanks to the publisher who were kind enough to send me an advance copy for review.

A story that is quite light and enjoyable to listen to, read by its author. Lots of interesting anecdotes on immigrant lifestyle and the chutzpah required to make it in the new world. I did enjoy the smart-ass style of the narrator/protagonist.

This was a good one. The character development was on point, and I could feel the character's personality off the page.

I really liked the main character thru most of the book until the last quarter. She was amazing in her ability to find ways to survive her childhood, her ways of not letting her disability stop her or make others assist her, her care and love for her husband, and her strength in running the company. Loved the descriptions of starting and running an ice cream empire along with surviving the depression. Initially I understood Lilly's desire to be better than her former family's company and wanting to prove it. After she became rich, I could not agree with her ways. Actually felt sorry for her when she met up with her Dad.

I was delightfully surprised by this travelogue memoir turned real-life thriller. This is a story about two ivy league grads out to take on the world on a backpacking trip during the Cold War. I went into the story not knowing much more than that and I think that only helped to enhance the experience for me. The author's unflinching honesty about her younger self made the story more relatable for me. After the halfway point I couldn't put it down and finished the rest in one sitting.

I'm awake hours past bedtime because I wanted to finish this book - many twists and turns - felt real and fictional - yet I felt I could relate to Donna even never having been in her, umm, predicaments. If you find this book disappointing, message me to explain how that happened.

3.5 - Why aren't there 1/2 stars here?

I liked it - I just didn't love it. Liked the "history" of it, but had a problem loving the main character, Malka/Lillian. She was strong, funny, but annoying at times - most times. The story did keep me interested and kept me reading.

I don't usually read memoirs but I am so glad I picked this up. This was very interesting and amazing. I definitely don't have the balls this lady did, so I would have never done this. I was very pleased with the ending as I was worried she wasn't going to do something. What an amazing life experience she has had.

It's a fascinating novel that begins with a family of Russian Jews emigrating to America, the land of golden opportunity. It follows the life of Malka, one of the children in this family, as she navigates the horrific tenement style poverty of early 1900's New York City. Her parents are a disaster, both as a couple and as a mother and father. Malka manages to survive them and become successful in the ice cream world.
She's not always an easy person to like, but one can easily see how her circumstances shaped her. Malka is both naive, hopeful, finally learning to be self protective, and I loved her journey.

Told in a first person narrative, Lillian Dunkle’s story is mesmerizing. It spans from a conned change of a ticket from Africa to NYC to a rejected childhood and being raised by an Italian family after a horse runs over her. This family makes ice cream and our heroine’s life spans 70 yrs on the business along with her husband Bert. Lillian is irreverent, profane, indomitable and a delight. I enjoyed her story very much.½

Don’t fall for the "chick lit” cover. This is a smart,sad, engrossing story about a brilliant and complicated (often unlikeable) woman that will most likely get overlooked due to the cheesy cover.

A rags- to- riches historical fiction, of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Malka Treynovsky, a determined six-year old girl from a VERY poor childhood, set in 1913 New York City.

An exciting journey and fate of one driven, complicated, determined, yet colorful and troubled protagonist ----- encountering misfortune on her way to the dream she yearns for, and then some. .
Within three months of arriving in New York, her Papa abandons her, and her mother blames her for their misfortune-- Malka gets trampled by a horse, leaving her crippled (of no use to her mother). Abandoned by her parents, fate steps in---the man steering the horse takes pity on Malka, taking her into his home and world, where she becomes part of the family business (Italian ices).

This poor, unattractive, smart, yet sarcastic and crippled Malka soaks up everything from Catholicism, and embraces the family business, while at the same time excels at school, and her life begins to change drastically for the better. Fueled by her grief and abandonment, she begins to redefine herself as Lillian, The Ice Cream Queen of America.

And that’s just the beginning……

I really wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. Donna was a hot mess but that was the whole concept for the book. Plus, I did not mind that she was so scatter brained. This was the charm about her as well as it showed that she was relatable and human.

What did not work for me were everyone else. I could not find any connection towards any of them. Thus they just faded into the mobpit. Which, Donna is a star in her own right but she actually benefits from others to help with her story. Therefore, when the other characters are not that intriguing it is up to the main character to lead the story or for the storyline to be really great.

My reading experience of this book was part reading/skimming. Plus I was waiting for all of the laughs to come. Sadly this book did not do anything for me. Yet, it might for someone else.

Although being fiction, the novel is based on the American history and is also the history of ice cream making and TV shows. The book is written like an autobiography, Lillian Dunkle tells the story of her live, switching between present and past - with many cliffhangers in the chapters about the events in the past, to keep the story going and to maintain the interest of the readers.

This story without doubt is very interesting, because it shows the dangerous, poor conditions, the immigrants had to deal with in the “American Dream”, just to survive. But it was quite difficult for me to finish a 572 pages novel, when I absolutely can find no sympathy for the main protaginist Lillian Dunkle. From the very beginning, she is egoistic, steals and lies if it is necessary to keep her business growing and earning more and more money. Maybe understandable from her background, she had to be a fighter, but as it is fiction, I had liked her to be a little bit more human and likeable.

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman is, on the surface, the story of Malka Treynovsky aka Lillian Dunkle, matriarch of an ice cream empire. Once known as the Ice Cream Queen, host of a popular Saturday kids show, she is a prickly old lady when the story opens, facing jail time for tax evasion and sparring with her family. Behind the scenes, Lillian is nothing like the kindly host of the show. She is brutally honest, often a little drunk, and her paranoia keeps her from ever seeing her own success. That complexity kept the book from being a typical rag to riches story.

The setting of the book also adds interest. New York in the early 1900s through the Second World War mostly in New York but also along the byways of America where Lillian and her husband Bert drive their ice cream truck, using their special formula to create a unique blend. I had not known about the role ice cream played for the military in WW II, as a special treat for the troops who were served by ice cream barges.

It probably gets that same 3.85: not the best book but not bad. There were times when I wanted to slap the main character but maybe that was part of the author's intention.½

Entertaining! I don't know what else to say...
I can't wait to read more of her books.

Just okay for me, the main character was so Leona Helmsley-ish that is took me right out of the story. Instead of admiring the story of her rise from nothing to running an empire, I was left rather ambivalent.

I couldn't sleep last night and finished this book at 3:45 AM!

It's really good. Travel memoir is not necessarily my favorite genre, but the problems that Claire had (which I don't want to give away) made this book more gripping than most. And I really liked Gilman's voice and attitude. Yes, she acted a bit bratty herself sometimes, but she was 21 so I am willing to cut her some slack. Overall, it's a page-turner.

With its vivid depictions of old New York City tenement life and its tale of the American ice cream business set against the backdrop of the major events of the 20th century, this rags-to-riches saga will appeal greatly to readers of American historical novels. ~Library Journal Reviews

I feel this is a great travel book and I recommend it to anyone that is going to be traveling to a foreign country. This was the story of 2 girls just out of college traveling around the world in 1986. The journey begins in The Peoples Republic of China. The way that this is written made feel very anxious for the girls while they were traveling. While they are in Communist China, they begin to feel paranoid and physically ill. The conditions that Gilman describes were simply unbelievable. But she did such a good job with her writing that I did believe it. 6 weeks into their trip one of the girls goes into a psychotic episode and it is questionable whether or not they were going to be able to get out of the country in order to get her home. Great Book!!!!

If you grew up in the 70s, this book is for you. So much fun to read.