Beverly & Marigold

Beverly Reynolds's odyssey begins as a ten-year-old innocent in the middle of America, puzzled by blood and warfare. In time he sets out to find some kind of truth "with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a hammer in the other." He stumbles into the birth of Off-Broadway theater and the American civil rights movement, then, ruined by alcohol, spirals downward on the streets, where he discovers a single, fantastical, fictitious woman named Marigold."Don't forget me," she says, "my name is Marigold." There's not much of a chance of that. She presides over a small gathering of street people, redeemable cans, and khaki blankets. She is the human spirit, hungry and cold, soaring out of her "little country" on West Broadway to run for mayor, confront the devil himself, and save the World Trade Center from collapse. And she does it as if every day were Christmas. She is unforgettable, incomparable, brought stirringly to life in the Marigold stories.