Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood [Mass Market Paperback]

Kate Simon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0140263314 | ISBN-13: 978-0140263312

"As an account of growing up female, it is a fit companion piece to Mary McCarthy's classic Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood."—Le Anne Schreiber, The New York Times.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Simon's 1982 memoir made several best books lists. It follows her own life as an immigrant child growing into adolescence in the Bronx. This remains for "general readers and mature YAs" (LJ 5/1/82).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Splendid as ever, Kate Simon now turns her powers of observation upon herself as a child and upon the sidewalks, the stoops, the public schools and the railroad flats of the Bronx she grew up in. If the words "incomparable" and "unrivalled" have not been included in this context, it's because her history is mined from a vein which has been so much exploited in our literature that comparisons are inevitable. -- The New York Times Book Review, Helen Yglesias

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140263314
• ISBN-13: 978-0140263312
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unintentionally poetic inspiring memoir, July 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (Mass Market Paperback)

Good fortune was with me when I happened upon this book last year. It is now one of my all-time favorites and I went on to read the two books that chronologically follow this one. My only complaint is that Ms. Simon died before she had the chance to tell us every minute detail about her unextraordinary, extraordinary life. A Jewish immigrant household in the Bronx shaped Kate's wonderful and unique personality. She shares her childhood - engrossing tales of urban fairy tale embedded in the real world of poverty -with the aplomb of a grand story-teller. If only I could have met her. She is the baudy humorous glamorous grandmother we all wish was our own.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well written memoir, October 5, 2005

By 

E. M. Bristol "bibliophile" (boston, mass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a warm, witty and intricate look at the author's childhood and teenage years in the Bronx. The prose sucks you in, and you are given enough detail so that you feel that you are right there with the author.

However, if you want to give it as a gift to a young bookworm, be forewarned that it contains graphic sexual content, including a blow-by-blow description of the male and female anatomy, and several descriptions of sexual (and physical) abuse.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes uncomfortable..., January 16, 2002

By 

Sarah K. Blumenthal (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (Mass Market Paperback)

The frank portrayal of Simon's relationship with her father in this book is refreshing, as are many of the stories about daily life as a girl growing up Jewish in the Bronx after WWI. However, the parts dealing with sexual advances of older man and, in general, older people's sexual opportunism with younger people were things I found really disturbing. Simon tells these anecdotes well and evenly, but as a reader, I felt frustrated and helpless reading so much about the way the taboos of sexuality trapped kids into silence about their victimization.