Welcome to the world of Lola Bensky, born in Germany to parents who survived the Auschwitz death camp. Lola grows up with her parents dodging questions about their past, a dysfunctional family due to the war with a language barrier with unhappy yet loved times. After leaving school Lola found herself travelling to America and London to interview bands for a rock magazine at age 19 (in the year 1967) and although this may sound exciting to us, and its definitely interesting to hear her banter about fat with Mamma Cass to Auschwitz with Mick Jagger, I get the feeling Lola’s ego isn’t one to boast about who she has interviewed in life, its about being chubby and working on diets and more diets until she reaches her sixties when life is less about diets and more about being herself.
Lola interviews band members such as, Hendrix (delivered in fishnet stockings to a gentle soul who believed music was his religion), Twiggy, The Troggs, Cat Stevens, Barry Gibb, Cher and Bono, Paul Jones, Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison (and his love of Satan) Warhol, Janis Joplin (lets talk about sex), Mamma and Papas and more. This was just an average day for this Aussie sensation who writes articles for a magazine, irons her hair yet asks a lot of questions and thinks a lot (almost like Nina Proudman) but its this irrepressible curiosity that makes her fun, quick and sassy. The stories sidetrack to interesting reverie’s along the way. As much as the book is entertaining, it’s also a heartfelt look at the life of a 19 year old making her way into the world and the book is very believable. Maybe the answers are within the two detectives and the PIMP that she becomes close too, that spur her on later in life, or maybe the questions she is asking the musicians are really questions she asks herself. I get the feeling Lola just wants to belong in the world but wait till you read about vaginas and soap! You’ll find out about Lola in her thirties, surviving the battle of the diet, husband and kids and then into her fifties with a new love until she is in her sixties having dinners with the elite, the topic of conversation isn’t diets and therapists, its now about cuisine and cooking. You’ll share the journey and read an interesting death montage at the end.
Lola Bensky is Lily Brett’s sixth novel and it’s extremely relevant to Lily’s actual life as the author was also born in Germany to survivors of the Auschwitz death camp and she migrated with her parents to Australia in the late 1940s. Lily has lived in New York since 1989 with her husband and three children. You will notice that both their names start with the same letter and as Lily was a reporter for Australia’s first music magazine, Go-Set, this is a book based on real experiences and you will believe the interviews and stories you read.
Overall, an absolute hoot!
Publisher: Penguin Books
Release date: September 2012
RRP: $29.99
