The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street

At the heart of memoirist Gilman's (Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress; Kiss My Tiara) first novel is ice cream entrepreneur Lillian Dunkle, a fascinating character who, like American businesswoman Leona Helmsley, believes that "only the little people pay taxes." At 75, Lillian is bravely facing federal tax evasion charges. The press and the public perceive this as a case of Lillian getting her just desserts, but as the narrative backtracks to her early life, readers learn that Lillian has not always been so rich or felt so entitled. The youngest of four daughters in a poor Russian Jewish family, she is born Malka Treynovsky and touches down on New York City's Lower East Side as a child in the early 20th century. Run over by a horse cart and permanently crippled within three months of her arrival, she is quickly abandoned. When the kindly Italian ices peddler who ran her over takes her in, Malka learns self-reliance. Through grit, wits, and some luck, she builds a prosperous life for herself and her family.