Böcker av Martin Drapkin

Here are narratives by "nobodies" who were privileged (or, in some cases, not) to be employed by or otherwise to have served famous people. They include corpulent Horatio, who serves as "a sort of muse" to a grieving William Shakespeare; Mose, a runaway slave who serves as a masseur and bedtime reader to Anne Bonny; the fierce but nervous pirate; and Parson, a spiritual advisor to Davy Crockett. There's Buffalo Hump Woman, a hairstylist to General Custer; ten-year-old Mimsy, a tea party assistant to aged Lewis Carroll; pretty Antoinette, who serves as a maid for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; and Louie, a press aide to President William Howard Taft, whose endeavor is to mislead the press as to Taft's true weight. There's burnt-out Jean, a fortuneteller for Marilyn Monroe; and Percy, a spy for temperamental Vince Lombardi. And Solly, who serves as a trivia research assistant to retired gangster Meyer Lansky in Miami Beach.

Maggie Mullen is a fiercely independent 27-year-old woman who has built a quiet, simple life for herself that revolves around her cat-tending business, the time she spends each evening in her oversized claw-foot bathtub with her own faithful feline Lucy nearby, and her enduring love for Frank Sinatra. Her life becomes more complicated when she's asked to be maid of honor at her younger sister's late-summer wedding-a prospect that she dreads, especially having to give a toast at the reception. Maggie's strong opinions and many flights of fancy help her get through her ordeal.