Becoming Duchess Goldblatt

February 1, 2020

The pseudonymous Twitter account @DuchessGoldblat purveys an 81-year-old literary persona who has authored books like Feasting on the Carcasses of My Enemies and Not If I Kill You First, a tender meditation on mothers and daughters. Here she reflects on building a worthwhile life after grief. A smallish print run so far but shaping up to be a sleeper hit of summer.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2020
A decade or so ago, the author of this memoir was curious about social media, but, having just had her life eviscerated by divorce attorneys, figured an anonymous account was the way to go. Enter her invention, Duchess Goldblatt, a beloved octogenarian writer with an "evergreen love for all humanity" who now has 25,000 Twitter followers. Incorporating some of the Duchess' quippy, tender tweets and conversations with her devoted following?a group that includes celebrated writers, other celebrities, and lots of nonfamous fans?this is the author's story of finding a voice and creating a community through this fictional character, an antidote to loneliness for herself and so many others. She delves into difficult family history, shares her late father's lessons in faith and kindness, and reveals her identity to a select few fans, including her "favorite of favorites," the author's now good friend, Lyle Lovett. The author is a heck of a writer; readers will rejoice when she sees she's not so different from her dear creation after all. A surprising, joyful story of social media at its best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 1, 2020
How does a fictional character write a real memoir? Very, very well. Most readers who are active on social media are aware of Duchess Goldblatt, the acerbic yet warmhearted doyenne of Twitter, represented by a Frans Hals portrait of an elderly woman with a stiff muff around her neck. Over the years, she's dispensed witticisms and advice to her 24,000-plus followers, many of them writers, without giving away any clues about the person behind the persona. When she finally met her No. 1 fan, Lyle Lovett (it's a long story), he was shocked that she wasn't "a little old lady or a gay man!" Now, Duchess Goldblatt's admirers can get to know her still-anonymous creator, and perhaps the biggest surprise in this striking memoir is the fact that Duchess is a name (taken from a friend's dog), not a title, though no doubt everyone will keep calling her "Your Grace." The author created Duchess during a terrible time: She'd lost her job, her husband had left her, and she was tormented by the part-time separation from her young son. Duchess was a way for her to lurk online, but she soon found herself carefully crafting posts, responding to everyone who wrote to her, and finding solace in the community she'd created. The book is prismatic, moving among the author's difficult childhood, the years after her divorce, and her growing relationships with people Duchess had befriended--only a few of whom, including Lovett, have ever met her. She wrestles with the questions of whether she and Duchess are two separate people and how Duchess makes friends so easily when she herself feels almost friendless. Lovett's manager called what she's doing "collaborative performance art," and that's an apt term for it; together with Duchess' followers, she's created a long-term fever dream of humor, compassion, wordplay, and dog photos. A fascinating memoir by a 21st-century original.

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