Lost in Yonkers (Drama, Plume) [Paperback]

Neil Simon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Drama, Plume | Publication Date: January 1, 1993

Comic Drama / Casting: 4m, 3f / Interior Scenery

Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award

By America's great comic playwright, this memory play is set in a Yonkers in 1942. The hit Broadway production featured Irene Worth, Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey in award-winning performances. Bella, is 35-years-old, mentally challenged and living at home with her mother, stern Grandma Kurnitz . As the play opens, ne'r do-well son Eddie deposits his two young sons on the old lady's doorstep. He is financially strapped and taking to the road as a salesman. The boys are left to contend with Grandma, with Bella and her secret romance, and with Louie, her brother, a small-time hood in a strange new world called Yonkers.

"The best play Simon ever wrote."-New York Post

"Broadway desperately needs a comedy, a drama, and a hit. With Lost in Yonkers, Mr. Simon has given us all three."-Wall Street Journal

"One of Simon's most impressive and funniest plays."-New York Daily News

"Laughter and tears have come together in a new emotional truth. There are moments in this play when you experience a new kind of laughter for Simon, a silent laughter that doesn't explode into a yuk but implodes straight into your heart."- Newsweek

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Simon's 1991 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play about two young boys who are forced to live for a year with their domineering, ill-tempered grandmother while their father takes a job in another state is beautifully realized by the L.A. Theatre Works cast. Like most of Simon's works, this one features an eccentric cast of characters. Listeners meet Aunt Gert (played by Gia Carides), whose voice frequently switches into a wheeze midsentence, and Uncle Louie (played by Dan Castellaneta), a Bogart-like gangster. This production realizes Simon's trademark mix of comedy and drama: the one-liners are hilarious, but the characters' sad, dysfunctional relationships are poignant. The compassionate, three-dimensional performances, combined with Simon's nuanced writing and authentic rendering of 1940s speech, make the listener fully believe in these realistic, complex characters. Standout performers include Roxanne Hart as the boys' kindhearted but nervous Aunt Bella and Barbara Bain as Grandma Kurnitz, whose tough, coldhearted exterior is a reaction to a lifetime of devastating pain and loss. Also excellent are Ben Diskin and Kenneth Schmidt as the young boys. At first lonely and miserable, fearing and hating their stern grandmother, they gradually come to respect and understand her. Based on the Random House hardcover.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From School Library Journal

YA-- An insightful drama about one woman's drive and its emotional toll on her and her family. Grandma Kurnitz has endured many crises, ranging from a harsh childhood in Germany to being a young widow with six children in a foreign country. From her life she learned to be strong, hard, and cold, and this is the lesson she tries to instill in her four remaining children. While her two teenage grandsons are in her care, the three learn the importance of being loved and loving, and the difference between living and surviving. The themes of family ties and the search for love should strike a responsive chord with many young adults.

Patricia A. Long, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452268834
• ISBN-13: 978-0452268838
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I stopped feeling because I couldn't stand the thought of losing again.", January 5, 2008

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lost in Yonkers (Drama, Plume) (Paperback)

Set in Yonkers, New York, in 1942, this Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play captures the tumult of the period by focusing on the lives of three generations of one family, all of whom are dealing with personal issues in addition to the traumas of World War II. Arty, age 13, and Jay, age 15, whose mother has just died of cancer, must move in with their stern immigrant grandmother and sweet, but ditzy, Aunt Bella while their father works for ten months in the South.

Grandma Kurnitz, who (ironically) runs a sweet shop, is embittered by her life: only four of her six children survive, and none of them are close to her. She does not know her grandchildren and does not want them living with her and messing up her life and her house, facts she makes plain to the boys from the outset. Ruling with an iron hand, she terrifies everyone around her.

The coming-of-age of Arty and Jay, as they learn to deal with Grandma and eventually learn to respect her, is not without its complications as the rest of the family involves the boys in their own issues. Aunt Bella, who is mentally and emotionally a child, falls in love. Aunt Gert, who can speak only as she exhales, and wheezes as she inhales (the result of a childhood trauma involving Grandma), checks in periodically on Grandma and Bella but tries to avoid Grandma. Uncle Louie is a bagman for the mob, and he is on the run. Their father, who maintains a dramatic presence through his letters, cannot come home until he has earned enough to pay off the loan sharks to whom he is indebted for the money for his wife's cancer treatments.

Moments of great drama, wit, and poignancy play out within the apartment, with all the action revolving around Grandma. Gradually, the reader/viewer develops empathy for this victim of life's tragedies, a woman who has made her own life more difficult than it needed to be and permanently damaged the lives of her family. The liveliness and optimism of Arty and Jay, as they try to survive Grandma and their life with her, cast the damaged lives of their elders into sharp relief, adding to the dramatic intensity of the climax. Firmly grounded in time, place, and atmosphere, this play, like many other Simon plays, provides a close-up look at a struggling family in New York and reveals its action from the point of view of a child who comes of age during the action. A beautiful evocation of man's universal need for love and respect. n Mary Whipple

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt, September 1, 2001

By 

Sai Li - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost in Yonkers (Drama, Plume) (Paperback)

I was pleasantly surprised by Lost in Yonkers. The story touched my heart without being pretentious. Neil Simon is one of the best modern playwrights who has the heart of Miller and the inventiveness of Mamet.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent performances make this play come alive!, September 14, 2007

By 

Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost in Yonkers (Audio CD)

An organization called L.A. Theatre Works brings together top
actors to perform classic and contemporary plays, recorded in
state-of-the art sound quality . . . I've heard several of these in
the past and have never been disappointed . . . so when I had the
chance to listen to Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS, I jumped at the
opportunity.

What a marvelous time I had!

The play is set in Yonkers in 1942 . . . two boys, aged 13 and 16, have
to spend one year with their demanding grandmother after their
mother dies and their father needs to find work elsewhere . . . they
encounter all sorts of memorable characters, and I really felt
that I got to know each and every one of them.

The performances were all excellent, though in particular, I
was touched by the work of Roxanne Hart as Aunt Bella.

I now want to see the movie version of this play and, also,
catch more productions from L.A. Theatre Works.