The classic, unforgettable memoir of a young girl's coming of age, Bronx Primitive recalls the vitality of an immigrant neighborhood through the unsentimental eyes of a child. With an unerring eye for detail and an iridescent, clear-eyed prose, Kate Simon captures the particular world of her childhood as well as the universal uncertainties and triumphs of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood.
Book Description
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.
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
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unintentionally poetic inspiring memoir,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (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,
By
This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (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...,
By
This review is from: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (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.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
We lived at 2029 Lafontaine, the last house on the west side of the street from 178th to 179th, a row of five-story tenements that ended at a hat factory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hat factory, new piano Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Arthur Avenue, Coney Island, Teddy Bear, Third Avenue, Old Country, Tremont Avenue, Crotona Park, Uncle David, Fannie Herman, Yom Kippur, New York, Uncle Schlommke, Helen Roth, Nita Naldi, Sunday American, Miss Sullivan, Rudolph Valentino, Being Married, Charlie Chaplin, Fifth Avenue, Fordham Hospital, Gloria Swanson, King of the Hill, Lillian Gish, Mimme Pessel New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
We lived at 2029 Lafontaine, the last house on the west side of the street from 178th to 179th, a row of five-story tenements that ended at a hat factory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hat factory, new piano Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Arthur Avenue, Coney Island, Teddy Bear, Third Avenue, Old Country, Tremont Avenue, Crotona Park, Uncle David, Fannie Herman, Yom Kippur, New York, Uncle Schlommke, Helen Roth, Nita Naldi, Sunday American, Miss Sullivan, Rudolph Valentino, Being Married, Charlie Chaplin, Fifth Avenue, Fordham Hospital, Gloria Swanson, King of the Hill, Lillian Gish, Mimme Pessel New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 5
books:
60
books
cite this book:
See all 60 books citing this book
- Etchings in an Hourglass by Kate Simon in Front Matter
- Thus Spake Zarathustra (Dover Thrift Editions) by Friedrich Nietzsche on page 175
- Fifth Avenue: A Very Social Story by Kate Simon in Front Matter
- War and Peace (Problems in Theology) by Jeff Astley on page 177
- Fifth Avenue by Arthur Bartlett Maurice on page 130
- Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough by Lloyd Ultan on 6 pages
- The Book of American Values and Virtues by Erik Bruun on page 32, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay on page 215, page 225, and Back Matter
- Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830-1930 by Miriam Formanek-Brunell in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay on page 215, page 225, and Back Matter
See all 60 books citing this book
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