Saint Mazie

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg, 325 pages

Structured as a faux-biography of a fictional woman, Saint Mazie tells the life story of Mazie Phillips-Gordon, the proprietor of a movie theater in the Bowery during the first half of the 20th Century. The story is told through Mazie's journal entries, interspersed with snippets of interviews with fictional historians and the descendants of those who knew Mazie when she was alive; the approach makes the whole book feel a bit like the transcript of a Ken Burns documentary on a single, extraordinary woman, and the effect she had on those around her. The story starts with Mazie as a teenager, and takes us through the end of her diary in the late 1930s, giving us insight into her thoughts and fears, as well as what was most important to her. As much as it's the story of this one woman, it's also the story of New York during the '20s and '30s. Attenberg does a great job bringing that era to life, and bringing Mazie to life. What a great book.