Season of Lillian Dawes, The

A witty and engaging first-person narrative of New York in 1954. In addition to the brilliant and mysterious Lillian Dawes, whose first noncameo appearance doesn't occur until a third of the book is behind you, you'll meet the brothers Gabriel and Spencer Gibbs, who are temporarily rooming together (for reasons explained in the opening chapter), and their delightful aunt Lavinia, who brings her own silverware, and her dog, to restaurants.

The story is written in the first person, by Gabriel at some point in his future, and it joins the ever-growing list of "New York" novels, and quite near the top, too. Comparisons with "Catcher in the Rye" as well as Henry James and Edith Wharton are inevitable. There's also more than a touch of "Breakfast at Tiffanys."

New Yorkers with long memories, or their children and grandchildren, will delight in the references to the politics of the time (Joe McCarthy, the Rosenbergs, President Eisenhower) as well as to artifacts of the "Populuxe" era--transistor radios, hula hoops--and long-gone New York eating places, like Schraffts.

Tidily done.

I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a novel that purports to be a comedy of manners but is also a heartwarming look at the eccentricities found in families and of the ties that bond those families together - in spite of themselves. Filled with humor and warmth, this one is an absolute stand-out, not to be missed.
At the heart of this book is Gabriel Gibbs, a young boy struggling to find himself after being thrown out of an upscale boarding school. Luckily he has his wise, if unconventional, brother Spencer to look after him as well as a muse in the form of the mysterious Lillian Dawes, a woman who is both more and less than she seems. She touches the heart of both Gabriel and his brother, leading them towards an unpredictable conclusion.

The epigraph for this brilliant novel is from Flaubert: "Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we beat melodies fit to make bears dance when we long to make the stars weep." Katherine Mosby does both in this novel, which for me was laugh out loud funny several times, as well as touching, haunting, and thought provoking. It is filled with eccentric characters who populate a deliciously rich evocation of New York in 1954. There were a few improbabilities that broke the spell for me a bit at the end, but I see the effect she was trying for in trying to make the stars weep. She almost makes it.

I hope next time Katherine Mosby allows herself to write a funny and sensual love story where we get to be in the main character's shoes.

This book might be best savored under a large tree with a wicker hamper from Dean and Deluca and a split of Dom Perignon champagne(attractive companion optional). Enter the world of Gabriel and Spencer and be transported to New York in the 1950s - an era of white gloves and house parties, old patrician families and rebellious scions, ageless social rituals rubbed at the edges by the new realities of life after World War II. In this heady world Gabriel,age 17, learns more in a few months than he can hope to have learned in years at the exclusive and stuffy boarding school from which he has been expelled. The inspiration for his education is Lillian Dawes, a mysterious and somewhat penniless heroine, in the style of Edith Wharton, who glides comfortably among both rich and poor with a beauty and charm that makes slaves of them all. She has a hidden past that speaks of danger and privation. She has an impetuous bravery that puts the rich and powerful to shame. She inspires in Gabriel a love that threatens to tear him apart from his fascinating older brother with whom Lillian falls reluctantly in love during this special summer in Greenwich Village.
Katherine Mosby writes in a lyrical style that is both easy to read and truly exquisite. She is a poet as well as an author and it shows. This novel combines the satire of the social world mastered by Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald with the evocation of place found in the likes of Faulkner and wraps it all up in a love story of classic proportions.

Jeff Woodson, one of America's premier voice artists, gives resonant reading to this tale of fascination and obsession. Those who heard Woodson's rendering of "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil" well know the qualities he brings to a voice presentation.

When young Gabriel Gibbs, son of an affluent attorney, is kicked out of prep school he is remanded to the care of his older brother, Spencer. That really isn't too hard to take as Spencer lives in a Greenwich Village apartment and determines that what Gabriel needs is an education in the way the world works. Of course, it is a very privileged world.

It is not too long before Gabriel spies the mysterious Lillian Dawes. She is unlike any of the other women he has come across in the City, and he is smitten. So is Spencer. When Lillian and Spencer become a couple it seems to be the perfect pairing. But, we all know how the course of true love runs and each harbors secrets from the other.

As an observer, although an emotionally involved one, Gabriel learns more than he might have in prep school - he learns about masks and what lies beneath them, he discovers the importance of being true to oneself.

It is a compelling story from which all of us may make discoveries.

- Gail Cooke