Paula Xiberras
Well, maybe not a showgirl, but a girl that was pretty cluey with her celebrity contacts in the showbiz world.
I had the pleasure recently of meeting the lovely Lily Brett. The Australian born author who has made her home in New York for the last 20 years or so was back in Australia to promote her latest book ‘Lola Bensky’. The novel is part autobiographical in that it tells the story of Lola, like Lily a young woman who became a journalist by a case of serendipity. Like Lola, lily’s father did not trust young men’s’ driving prowess so bought his daughter the now famous pink valiant immortalised in this book.
Lola just as Lily did, went along to a job interview at a newspaper and instead of being quizzed on her writing abilities was asked if she had a car, when she answered in the affirmative she drove into a journalistic job!
This case of serendipity set Lily on the career path to be a writer and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She tells me that her persona is evidenced in Lola, but also in many other characters in the novel.
When Lola mirrors Lilly with her celebrity interviews we discover the very human side of the famous. Lola, herself beset by issues of appearance, is able to communicate with the famous in a very personal way as they confide in her.
Lily shows us that in spite of the rich and famous having an ivory tower lifestyle we are able to see their very ordinariness through Lola’s eyes. Lola even finds herself in the role of rescuer when one of the famous requires rescuing.
Lily is a very soft spoken and thoughtful lady who has created a heroine of warmth and humour. Juxtaposing with the humour is sadness in the figure of Lily’s mother who has lost faith in God because of the atrocities that have occurred against the Jewish people including her own family.
Lily enjoys living in New York where she revels in ‘the diversity of life force’ and the ‘tolerance’. Lilly feels there is ‘a sense of involvement in life’, as living in the big city means you can’t keep yourself cosseted in cotton wool but just like everyone else to get from one place to another have to travel the subway as everyone does. She feels this is different than ‘living in a society where one can be more shielded ‘or’ homogeneous’. The ‘lack of stratification’ in New York also appeals to Lily.
Perhaps this reality is reflected in Lola’s free spirit and lack of fear to experience life and all it offers, including the normalcy in how she treats the celebrities she interviews which might be considered daunting for one so young as Lola.
This openness is also reflected in Lily’s words that ‘ what you encounter is not necessarily good or bad, but that it changes you’.
‘Lola Bensky’ is out now.
