Astor Place Vintage: A Novel

by Stephanie Lehmann

  She nodded. “In a minute.”

  I returned to the living room. “The nurse will be right here. I’m heading out, but I’ll be in touch. Thanks again for extending the lease, I really appreciate it.”

  “You take my advice, young lady. Start thinking more about your future and stop dillydallying in the past.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, Mrs. Kelly.” Even so, after a moment of indecision, without saying anything, I set the journal on the coffee table next to the necklace. Mrs. Kelly murmured in protest, but this time she allowed it to remain. And I did notice her lean closer to look at the cover.

  I let myself out. While waiting for the elevator, I checked my cell phone. That last text wasn’t from Bettina or Jeff. It came from a number I didn’t recognize.

  Did you find that million dollars in the hatbox?

  My heart did a flip-flop as I typed out my answer.

  Something even better.

  As I saved Rob’s number to my contacts, I reminded myself to stop at the pharmacy on the way to the store, though I had a suspicion that my sleep problems might be over. Then I remembered my plans to see Karin and Patricia later that night. Maybe I’d tell them about Rob and the journal over sushi. They’d have fun giving me a hard time about falling for a guy who lived on the other side of the country.

  The elevator came and I stepped on. As it descended, I thought how wonderful it would be if I reached the lobby to find it had turned into the ground floor of Wanamaker’s. Aisles of mahogany counters, a grand double staircase leading to the mezzanine, eight flights of balconies leading to the glass-domed ceiling … Women in long skirts and picture hats would be browsing as organ music played in the background. I waited for the elevator to come to a stop. When the door slid open, I stepped out.

  Acknowledgments

  I’D LIKE TO acknowledge three “California Girls” for helping this New York novel come to life. First off, thanks to my motivating mom Minnette Lehmann, originally from Sacramento, for repeatedly helping me feel the manuscript was wonderful when I wasn’t able to love it enough. Secondly, thanks to my steadfast agent Emma Sweeney, originally from San Diego, for helping me when my manuscript wasn’t wonderful and I was loving it too much. Thirdly, thanks to my brilliant editor Heather Lazare, originally from Carmel, whose love for the manuscript helped me get it right where it needed to go. This writer, originally from San Francisco, doesn’t know where this novel would be without their insight, enthusiasm, and thoughtful guidance.

  And then there are all the other people who gave me insight, enthusiasm, and thoughtful guidance, each in his or her own way: Elizabeth Kandall, Karin Sibrava, Amanda Selwyn, Patricia Kelley, Bill and Elaine Koster, Ellen Twaddell, Julie Carpenter, Leah Pike, Richard Friedman, Marsha Levy Warren, Andres San Martin, Allison Dickens, Jennifer Quinlan, and Lucia della Paolera.

  Finally, there is my brood. Thank you to David and Steve Kronovet for being there to hang out with when I wasn’t writing, and for not being there when I was. And thanks to Madeleine Kronovet for being the quintessential New Yorker.

  Photo Credits

  Author’s collection: postcards on pp. 135, 136, top.

  Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division—Detroit Publishing Company Collection: p. vi (reproduction number: LC-D4-13619); p. 136, bottom (reproduction number: LC-D4-17555); p. 197 (reproduction number: LC-D4-10907 R); p. 198 (reproduction number: LC-D4-9145); p. 199 (reproduction number: LC-D419-51); p. 278, Harry Thaw, circa 1909 (reproduction number LC-DIG-ggbain-04038); Evelyn Nesbit, circa 1900 (Gertrude Kasebier, photographer, reproduction number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-12056); p. 279 (reproduction number: LC-D4-16462); p. 308 East Side tenements, between 1900 and 1910 (reproduction number: LC-DIG-det-4a18586). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division—Bain Collection: p. 306 Metropolitan Tower, 1908 (reproduction number: LC-DIG-ggbain-01486); p. 396 Two women crossing a street, 1911 (reproduction number: LC-USZ62-123183).

  Museum of the City of New York: toiletries counter, 1910, Byron Company: p. 307.

  The New York Public Library; Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy; Photographic Views of New York City; Ewing Galloway, photographer: p. 134.

  TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE

  Astor Place Vintage

  FOR DISCUSSION

  1. When Amanda first visits Jane Kelly’s apartment to assess her clothes, she ponders, “funny how styles from your own parents’ day tend to call out with that seductive aura of nostalgia”. What era’s styles appeal to you?

  2. While Amanda is being hypnotized, her doctor asks her to think of a place that makes her feel “comfortable and content”, and she has some difficulty deciding on one. Why do you think it was such a challenge for her? What place would you choose?

  3. Olive is both unable and unwilling to rely on financial aid from men—from her father or a potential husband—yet Amanda regularly accepts checks from her married lover, Jeff. Which of the two women seems more modern?

  4. Amanda’s fascination with history was originally inspired by her collection of Time-Life books called This Fabulous Century. She thinks, “I used to pore over every word and stare at the glossy photographs with laser-like eyes trying to take in every detail and see beyond the edges to find aswers to questions I couldn’t quite put into words”. Are there books in your life that have had a similar effect on you?

  5. Do you think Olive’s father’s car accident was a true accident, or was it suicide? If Olive had not been forced to find work to support herself after his death, in what ways might her life have turned out differently?

  6. A woman of Olive’s socioeconomic background is expected to become a wife and mother; and the idea of working is considered base, and therefore shocking, to friends and family. As a store clerk she is offered low wages and few opportunities for advancement. Despite this, Olive pursues a career. How does this illustrate her character? How do Olive’s ways of dealing with change compare to Amanda’s? How are their challenges different?

  7. Amanda continues to see Jeff even though she knows she shouldn’t. Why do you think it’s so hard for her to end the affair? Do you see this as a weakness in her character? Does the fact that she dated Jeff before he got married affect your opinion of their affair?

  8. When Amanda finds out she is not pregnant, why do you thinks she seems disappointed? How does her pregnancy scare contrast with Olive’s?

  9. Psychic Lola Cotton seems to contact Olive’s dead mother, telling Olive: “ ‘She wants you to know … you must not feel guilty. She forgives you’ ”. Olive views this with skepticism. Is she too focused on looking forward to deal with feelings about her mother’s death?

  10. Amanda wonders whether her whole life is “ruled by nostalgia.” She thinks, “The past doesn’t just go away; it lingers on. You can actually touch and see the remains, and to the extent that these souvenirs survive, the past is the present. You can’t say that for the future… . You can never hold the future in your hands”. Do you agree? Does Amanda spend too much of her life looking back? Why is it so hard for her to leave Jeff? What finally convinces her to do it?

  11. As a single woman in the early 1900s, Olive cannot stay alone at a hotel; there are women-only areas in restaurants and bars; the idea of her working is met with significant disapproval; and the Victorian attitudes about women’s sexuality leave her ignorant and unprepared. At the end of the book she thinks, “Perhaps the day will come when women exist in the world as equals to men”. Do you think that day has come? If not, do you think it ever will?

  12. The theme of change as constant and unstoppable is present throughout the novel. Is the past always worth leaving behind? Is newer always better? Is it possible to strike a balance between preserving what is worthy about the past while allowing for modern developments?

  13. The author leaves the story open at the end, and we never know whether Jane Kelly reads the journal, whether Amanda starts a relationship with
Rob, even whether Olive and Angelina ever open a hat shop. Why do you think the author chose to end her book this way? What do you think happens to the characters?

  A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHANIE LEHMANN

  You are visible online on your personal website and book websites and on Facebook and Twitter. Do you feel these outlets bring you closer to your readers?

  Absolutely. I especially like how social media makes it possible for me to enhance the novel with additional material for readers who want to know more. When I was researching Astor Place Vintage, I got completely absorbed in early twentieth century New York City, but couldn’t begin to use all I learned. There are so many great online resources, and it’s great that I can use them to share historical details and photographs on my websites.

  Do you ever meet your fans in person? If so, what is the most valuable or helpful aspect of being face-to-face?

  I’ve done lots of readings and enjoy speaking to book clubs. Part of the thrill of getting published is knowing that people are going to engage in a world that I’ve been immersed in for years and felt passionate about creating. But reading is a solitary, anonymous act. As the author, I don’t necessarily experience the fact that this story that is so near and dear to my heart has made an impression. Meeting people face-to-face can be a wonderful way to have a dialogue with readers.

  Astor Place Vintage is your fifth novel. Does it get easier the more you write? Were there any new challenges this time?

  Every time I start a new novel, I feel like I have to learn how to write one all over again. Part of this is the mental intimidation. It’s daunting to create a whole, big “something” from “nothing.” The difficulty also comes from the fact that every novel is different and inevitably poses problems that are intrinsic to the world that’s being created. I like to compare the process to doing a jigsaw puzzle while the final picture keeps changing as you’re trying to find the pieces that fit together.

  Astor Place Vintage posed particular challenges because of my decision to set it in two time periods with two main characters whose narratives resonate and come together in a meaningful way. After a few drafts, I realized that it’s one thing setting out to do this and quite another to pulling it off. I began with an outline that became obsolete. It took a lot of trial and error to find my way to a story that fulfilled my intention. Almost every revision seemed to set off a domino effect of changes. Keeping track of the details could be mind-boggling. I like to tell people this novel counts as three books: Olive’s story, Amanda’s story, and the story of both of them melded together.

  Each of your previous novels is set in the present, yet Astor Place Vintage explores the world of 1907 New York. What inspired you to include this historical aspect, and why did you select that time in particular?

  The answer to this question seems to have taken on its own historical narrative, but here goes.

  Hoping to find inspiration for a novel idea, I was browsing the shelves of my neighborhood library. A book by Bella Spewack called Streets: A Memoir of the Lower East Side, caught my eye. Bella was the name of my grandmother, who could’ve been Spewack’s neighbor if she hadn’t gone straight from Ellis Island to join her father in Sacramento. And I lived on the Lower East Side when I was an NYU student. At that time, my one-room walk-up apartment was considered a coveted piece of Manhattan real estate in the “cool and trendy” East Village. But still, it was pretty decrepit, with a low ceiling, tilting floor, no kitchen, no closet, no light, a tiny bathroom, and proverbial cockroaches that roamed, especially at night. I checked out the book.

  Bella Spewack’s memoir transported me back to the first two decades of the twentieth century in New York City. Having landed there, I didn’t want to leave; I launched into a slew of similarly set memoirs and novels, including 81 Sheriff Street by Gertrude Ford, Out of the Shadow by Rose Cohen, Jews Without Money by Michael Gold, Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato, The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan, Empty Pockets by Rupert Hughes, Susan Lennox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips, and Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska.

  The idea of writing a novel taking place in New York City in the early part of the twentieth century would seem to have chosen me. Except I still had no idea what that novel might be.

  Next came a trip down to the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. I went on their tour of apartments done up to look just as they had when people lived at that address between 1863 and 1935. I couldn’t help but notice … these apartments were quite similar to my old East Village apartment. Wow. I’d lived in a place worthy of being a museum exhibit—an authentic tenement straight from history, still standing, still being used! Forgive me if I sound like I’ve had too much coffee, but in a way, New York is a living museum. Every street offers some historical revelation that you can only hope will survive the city’s never-ending makeovers.

  I still didn’t know how to turn any of this into a novel. But I was more sensitized to the past that surrounded me and began to think differently about my current apartment, where I lived with my husband and two kids. The building went up in 1928. How many families had lived there over the years? I tried to picture people walking from room to room, or looking at themselves in the same built-in mirrors on my bathroom doors. Who slept in my bedroom? Did they have a bed against the same wall? I wished I could see the clothes that used to hang in my closets. What tragedies and celebrations took place in these rooms? Did anyone ever die in these rooms? Did anyone give birth?

  The idea of writing a novel that takes place in two time periods took hold. Someone in the present would connect with someone in the past. But who were they? And what were their stories? And how did they connect? Should it take place on the Lower East Side? I still wasn’t sure. One thing I did know: they’d both be women. I can’t help being more interested in the experiences of living as a female. Still, no story idea came to mind.

  Around this point a book I once borrowed from my mother, Just Looking: Consumer Culture in Dreiser, Gissing, and Zola by Rachel Bowlby, called out to me from my bookshelf. I’d tried reading it before, attracted by its fun subject of shopping, but had found it too academic. Now I tried again, and this time my interest was piqued by one of the novels she analyzes The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola, which centered on people who work in a huge department store in 1860s Paris.

  Department stores. I had fond memories of going downtown in San Francisco when I was a kid to shop at Macy’s, the Emporium, City of Paris, and I. Magnin. As a matter of fact, I always thought those happy memories were part of why I was drawn to New York. Downtown San Francisco and the streets of Manhattan were both conducive to my favorite state of being: having lots of people around me with no obligation to speak with them.

  I was intrigued enough with Zola’s novel to bypass the library and actually purchase a copy. Before I was done reading The Ladies Paradise, I knew I wanted the historical sections of my novel to include the setting of a department store. Not the present time sections, though—department stores of today are so dull compared to shopping on the Internet. I love vintage clothes, though, so why not have my present-day character own a vintage clothing store? It made perfect sense. The modern character would romanticize the past, and the character from the past would aspire to be modern.

  I still needed to know when my character from the past lived. Initially, I was attracted to the second decade of the 1900s because the style of dresses was so beautiful then—less corseted, with the empire waist in favor. But as my plot took shape, I realized it made sense to set the novel one decade earlier, during the financial panic of 1907. The fashions of that year didn’t appeal to me as much, but I was mature enough to accept that what the characters wore couldn’t be the decisive factor.

  Finally, I was ready to start writing.

  Your character Amanda has a love for vintage clothing. Do you share her passion? On your website you discuss hunts for “junktique.” Is that more of a draw for you than clothing?

  I love going to flea
markets and thrift stores, and might be a hoarder. My first vintage obsession was 1930s kitchenware, inspired by a set of bowls inherited from my grandmother. Now, my dining room is filled with cabinets of dishware that will never be used for an actual meal, a collection of vintage paper napkins that shall never wipe a face, greeting cards never to be sent, and shelves of vintage books—most of which I’ve read. Because I like to sew, I also have stacks of vintage fabrics and jars full of vintage buttons that are waiting for me to stop writing and get crafty.

  As for vintage clothes, one closet in my apartment is crammed with dresses from the forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. They aren’t for wearing, so I don’t restrict myself to buying what fits. Most of them would make too much of a statement for me to feel comfortable in public. So it’s not that I want to be looked at while wearing one of these dresses; I buy them because looking at them gives me pleasure. I might be attracted to the pattern of the fabric, the styling, some particular way the piece conjures a decade … or it might just be from an amused sense of “What was that designer thinking?” Also, they were all cheap. I only buy vintage when I’m getting a good deal.

  You write about New York, both in the early 1900s and now, with the insight of a true New Yorker. As a native of San Francisco, what originally drew you to New York City? What keeps you there?

  I was accepted into the graduate English programs at New York University and also the University of Washington. I’d visited New York a couple times before, hated it, and thought anyone who chose to live there had to be crazy. Seattle, on the other hand, I knew to be beautiful, clean, and filled with “slacker” types like me. But everyone said that New York City was the place to go if I seriously wanted to “be a writer.” I turned Seattle down.