Saint Mazie - Jami Attenberg

From the bestselling author of The Middlesteins comes comes this unique novel about a forgotten heroine of the 1930s.Meet
Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and feisty, she runs The Venice, the famed
movie theatre in the rundown Bowery district of New York City. She
spends her days taking tickets, chatting with drunks and eccentrics, and
chasing out the troublemakers. After closing up, the nights are her
own, and she fills them with romance and booze aplenty-even during
Prohibition.When the Great Depression hits, and homelessness
soars, Mazie opens The Venice to those in need, giving them shelter and
dimes for food and booze, and earning the nickname 'Saint Mazie'.
Inspired by Joseph Mitchell's essay about Mazie in Up in the Old Hotel,
acclaimed author Jami Attenberg's novel honours an extraordinary life
and heralds a completely original approach to writing historical
fiction. Weaving together fictionalised diaries, writings and
interviews, Attenberg has constructed an utterly convincing portrait of
Mazie Philips, which is also a deeply moving portrait of New York as it
passed through the First World War, Prohibition, the boom of the '20s,
and then the terrible depression of the '30s.