This is one of my paperbacks that I first finished over the Easter weekend, Su 4/20/03. I refinished recently on We 4/5/17 on the day that I bought a new PC from BLH and a new 32" monitor from Walmart on South 6th.
I loved the book, and I think I liked it even more the second time around.
It's basically the first fifty years in the life of Lee (Lily) White; (1950-1999)
Her parents are Leonard and Sylvia. Leonard is a Jew who is ashamed of his roots and strives to become 'white'. In fact, he becomes so 'white' that he's essentially 'invisible'. Sylvia cares nothing about anything save fashion. Both parents are indifferent to Lily, and they care more for their younger daughter, Robin. She is a weak-willed individual who becomes a drug addict, recovers, and then steals Lily's husband.
A separate storyline concerns two con artists, Norman Torkelson and Mary Dean. Norman is a man who takes advantage of lonely, rich women. Bobette Frisch is one of his marks that is found strangled. Who did it- Norman or Mary? Both spend time in jail, but Mary is convicted of the murder and Lily is conned into believing that Norman did it. Norman has disappeared and chocolate from a candy bar that Bobette was eating at the time of her murder was found on the shirt that Norman was wearing. Lily is released from jail, and when Lily meets her for a celebratory lunch, she finds that Mary has also disappeared. Maybe Lily was conned by both of them.
Where The Whites (Weisberg/Weis/White) live is an upscale suburb of Long Island, NY. Behind their house is Hart's Hill. This is a run-down mansion where The Taylors live. Leonard is enthralled by these upper class people and Jason Taylor becomes Lily's husband.
Lily re-meets Jazz (Jason) in college. She had been attracted to him since she was a young girl. They are both studying to become lawyers. Jazz has it easy because his family is well connected, but he is lazy. Lily works her ass off- in her studies and in almost everything in her life. It seems like a perfect match, but Lily is more of a hippie and feels funny about turning into such a 'middle-class' person. This doesn't bother Jazz at all.
After they marry, Jazz drops the law and becomes an executive at Leonard's fur company. They make terrific money until the bottom drops out of the fur industry in the 70's.
After Lily and Jazz's daughter, Valerie is born, Robin becomes their babysitter. This is when Jazz and Robin become lovers. This destroys Lily, but her parents and Jazz's parents couldn't care less. This drives Lily against her family- for ever.
After Lily divorces Jazz she buys a big old house and creates a family. She takes Jazz's mentally challenged brother and many other people to become her new 'family'.
Will Stewart is a Black, gay, closeted lawyer who works in Lily's firm. He becomes Lily's close friend and confidant. In the end of the novel, Lily and Will marry because they believe that their friendship will see them through the loss of a sex life.
This is a massive and sprawling novel that's chock full of interesting characters. And, I really wanted to find out how Will and Lily's life worked after they marry and the book ends.
The novel at amazon-
https://www.amazon.com/Lily-White-Susan-Isaacs/dp/0061256234/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491571025&sr=1-1&keywords=lily+white+susan+isaacs
The author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Isaacs
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