This was a recommendation by a fellow reader, who advised that I would love this book. They were correct – I did. I had not heard of Duchess Goldblatt until now, but since this book I am a fan and follower of her on Twitter/X.
This book is the memoir of the anonymous author and online personality who brought Duchess Goldblatt to life in 2012. The story of the author’s own life challenges, disruptions, and disappointments, and how the online persona gave her both a lifeline to others and an outlet for her creativity and kindness is moving, funny, and joyful.
The author’s writing, both as Duchess and in her own right, is excellent. Her story is ordinary – a troubled family life, a happy marriage blindsided by divorce, the subsequent loss of friends, identity, and security – but her solution is extraordinary, providing an outlet for herself and a personality that thousands have found comfort in over the years. Through her story, she explores social expectations, mental health, religion, grief, identity, celebrity, self-reliance, and resilience.
Duchess Goldblatt is beloved by many, with a comparable number of interpretations of who or what she is. A fictional character, Duchess is the author of a few fictional memoirs and the doyenne of a fictional town. She dispenses quirky wisdom that is equal parts funny and profound. A few favourites:
The only way to be reliably sure that the hero gets the girl at the end of the story is to be both the hero and the girl yourself.
If you have the education, wits, and leisure time to pursue your own interests, you have it better than 99% of the people who ever lived.
Writers can be a lot of fun at parties, but word to the wise: Keep an eye on your good memories. They’ll strip them down for parts.
I try to keep my abiding love for all humanity in one place, but somehow it always ends up in piles on the dining room table.
When people say they’re going to “make time for you”, it’s instant time from a mix. Nobody bothers creating new time from scratch anymore.
I did love this book, and I’ll likely read it again to gather from the different dimensions, between the author and Duchess. Both are pithy and wise and fun to be with.
Fate: keeping this one.
8 – female author
13 – set somewhere I’ve never been
14 – a name in the title
23 – a memoir
25 – a new author to me
rclr 
Sounds very fun and interesting!