Customer Reviews

Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book's such a fun read. Schneider has a wonderfully witty and quirky voice. You actually feel like you're at this nutty sleepaway camp with her. I spent one summer at sleepaway camp myself and totally hated it - yet this book actually made me miss that time. It's the perfect summer story.

Readers will find that enduring Mindy Schneider's entertaining memoir of summer camp life is much like her experience: a seemingly endless trudge through a benignly monotonous, routinely humorous and absolutely predictable right of passage. "Not a Happy Camper" faithfully recreates Schneider's thirteen-year-old awkwardness, and self-deprecatory voice is full of genuine Jewish angst and humor. Nevertheless, there is only so much you can say about a pathetically decrepit Maine summer camp and its stereotypical denizens. Schneider takes about 230 pages to recount what she could have told in 25.

Duped by the slick-talking owner of Camp Kin-A-Hura (Hebrew for "Are You Out of Mind for Sending Your Child Here?"), Mindy's parents succumb to a barrage of sweetened lies and sign their resigned daughter to a summer's worth of unsupervised, unstructured (unless you consider binge consumption of candy an organized event) and uninspiring activities. There, Mindy discovers the joy of listening to rain on the roof, eating institutional food whose origins and nutritional value are at best dubious and interacting with a group of disaffected, disinterested and disillusioned Jewish early adolescents.

Naturally enough, Mindy wrestles with the weighty issues of trying to navigate the entire summer unnoticed by the cool kids and getting a boyfriend. It doesn't require a genius to predict that the relatively plain Mindy will set her sights on the camp's hunk, only to be consistently rebuffed, all the while letting the gem (the dork who undoubtedly will grow up to be a real mensch) slip through her fingers. Parading with her in this laissez-faire fairyland is a group of characters right out of central casting: the overbuilt air-brained beauties, the sophisticate who believes in reincarnation, the sleepwalker, the recluse and the oversexed camp counselors, whose main advice is akin to "leave us alone."

Mindy is bright enough to understand that the camp divides itself into two: the "Legacies" and the "Losers." Naturally enough, the Legacies, the "children of former campers," are "rich kids destined to lead relatively easy and productive lives." The "Losers," unsurprisingly, are "paste-eaters...conned into coming to this place in spite of the unbridled self-doubt and absolute lack of social skills." Schneider attempts to depict a certain poignancy in the interaction of both groups; sadly, the results are flat and unsurprising.

After a delightful thirty pages or so, "Not a Happy Camper" descends quickly into a seemingly interminable monologue about summer camp. For those who have graduated from this so-called life-altering time away from home, the head-nodding recognition of pranks and pratfalls could dangerous veer into whiplash. For the uninitiated, this memoir will convince them that they really haven't missed much at all.

If you are now or have ever been a teenager, whether you've been to summer camp or not, this book is sure to engage and delight you. This is a thoroughly amusing memoir written with the perspective that a few years will bring, while still appealing to the kid in all of us. The author draws a vivid picture of her experience and treats you to an insightful peek into her process of growing up a little in a new environment. You will laugh from page one and you will hope for a sequel. It's a great, light read. The narrative keeps you turning the pages. I've never written a review on Amazon before but this author made me do it! Brava Mindy Schneider. I'm waiting for your next book.

I attended a book reading in Los Angeles for a friend of mine (Amy Cohen and her excellent memoir; The Late Bloomers Revolution) and struck up a conversation with another attendee, Mindy Schneider. I inquired how she knew Amy and she told me that they had met at a reading in New York where they were both promoting their books. What's the name of your book, I inquired, "Not A Happy Camper". I had read about the book and had Mindy direct me to her stack and after purchasing a copy turned to the author and had her sign it. So, I just finished my signed copy of, "Not A Happy Camper" and here to report that it is a delight. Mindy having written for TV sitcoms, knows her way around a joke and tells the story of her 13th summer in the backwoods of Maine at Camp Kin A Hurra with a wonderful sense of humor,bringing her fellow campers to life on the page and an abiding affection for those days gone by. I never attended camp as a child but after reading Mindy's memoir I regret missing out on the fun, the companionship and the barf-et up at Camp Kin-A-Hurra. A real treat and thanks again for signing my copy Mindy-you're all right.

Writer Mindy Schneider was 13 once, and she remembers it with photographic precision and pungent Jewish humor. Mindy's 13-year-old self is off to summer camp. Camp Kin-a-Hurra is, she believes, the place where she will meet her first real boyfriend, bond with sophisticated girls her own age, and learn something so secret about growing up that she's not even sure what it is. She doesn't even mind the long ride since, for once, she has the back seat to herself instead of being jammed in next to two brothers, one of whom invariably throws up when he gets in a car.

One reason why Mindy is so thrilled to be going to Kin-a-Hurra is that she picked it out. Unlike the New York camps her parents swore by and argued about, where Mindy had endured two disappointing summers, Kin-a-Hurra is in Maine and run by the dynamic but possibly insane Saul. Saul visited Mindy at home to make his pitch, touting the many wonders of his paradise in the woods: photography, wilderness hikes, an international staff and heated bunks (dormitories).

When most of Saul's claims turn out to be highly exaggerated, Mindy is not really upset. "I grew up," Schneider explains, "in a family that was so strict and had so many rules it made life crazy. Then I went to a place that had no rules at all and somehow it made perfect sense." She isn't upset when the toilets are out of order (because it means the girls get to crash the boy's side in search of relief) or when camp transportation consists of a rickety old station wagon on its last tires and something known as the Green Truck, about which one of Mindy's cohorts opines, "I think Saul bought it on sale after the Holocaust."

Saul also tells Mindy and her parents that Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan had once been counselors at Kin-a-Hurra. Moshe Dayan had taught archery, Saul swore. To the 13-year-old Mindy, it seems logical enough. "It explained Mr. Dayan's eye and all." Mindy learns that a lot of Jewish freedom fighters did attend Saul's camp way back when. But not Golda and Moshe. The true lore of Kin-a-Hurra is imparted by Philip, whom she doesn't want for a boyfriend.

Not surprisingly, Mindy and her fellow bunk-mates are nothing short of obsessed with the subject of boys. Constantly comparing herself to the other girls, speculating about which ones have more worldly experience, is part of Mindy's coming of age at Camp Kin-a-Hurra. She pursues a boy named Kenny because he is older, taller and cute, but winds up with the initially rejected Philip, because he is nice and likes her, two qualities too good to overlook. Yet, when they finally get in a clutch, the young but winsomely wise Mindy finds herself thinking, "When will it end? This kiss, this unpleasant moment, this whole hideous adolescence?"

Mindy battles constantly with self-esteem: "Unless I lost fifteen pounds in my sleep I was going to be a big-nosed blob in a bathing suit dog-paddling my way through the next day's waterfront races." She can't sing, either. But she finds that she has a talent for writing during her super-charged summer at Kin-a-Hurra.

In NOT A HAPPY CAMPER, Mindy Schneider manages to keep her young teen self and her mature writer self separated most of the time, which is not an easy feat. But occasionally we hear the adult voice chiming in to good effect. For instance, the "child" Mindy never stopped to wonder how her parents were able to afford such an expensive summer experience for her. Was it because they were richer than they let on? No matter. It was, the "adult" Mindy realizes retrospectively, a remarkable gift. It enabled her to tackle the thorny problem of growing up while living for a season in a loose-knit gaggle of her peers, where any crazy thing might happen and lots of wonderful things did.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott

I looked forward to reading this book each night. Although I'm about 15 years younger than Ms. Schneider, my memories of Jewish summer camp are similar. Ms. Schneider remembers the feelings of young adolescence so well and captures the funny small moments that are so true! This is a story that I want to share with my sister and friends.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read, much in the style of David Sedaris. The author has bound together virtually every experience a child could have at a rustic, ramshackle Maine camp. Her perspectives are priceless. It is a must-read for anyone who has ever persevered through a summer that ends up feeling nothing like the sales pitch originally presented by the camp owner.

I went to a sleep-away camp from 1969-1975 that reminded me of the one that Mindy went to. This book reminded me so much of the fun times I had there. In addition, the author, Mindy Schneider, grew up in my hometown and we were in the same class. In fact, I went to the same Temple and shopped at the same stores as she did for her camp clothes. All three of my teenage children go to camp now (one is a counselor) and they are not the same as they were 30 years ago. This book was so much fun to read and I truly enjoyed remembering the "good old days". This book is a fun summer reading book for any of us "forty-somethings" who went to sleep away. It is well written and I want to wish Mindy the best of luck with her future writings.

This book was laugh-out-loud funny. I went to sleepaway camp for 6 straight summers in the 70's. My camp was a bit more upscale (and structured!) than Camp Kin-a Hurra but so many things in this book brought back memories for me. I could relate to the whole cast of characters! It's a fast, easy read and Mindy makes you feel as though you are right there with her at this crazy camp. If you went to a Jewish camp and you still remember your color war songs then you need to read this book!!!

Summer camp in Maine. Away from home, escaping from parents, siblings and reputations. A chance to learn new skills, meet new friends and, the most important, get that all important first boyfriend.

That is Mindy Schneider's dream when she convinces her parents to let her go to summer camp in far away Maine. Her parents want her to return to the same stuffy camp she went to for the past two summers but, with help from a home visit by camp owner Saul Rattner, she gets permission to attend Camp Kin-A-Hurra. A beautiful camp set in the sunny forests of Maine on the side of a picturesque lake, it seems like the perfect place to find the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, Saul is not a totally honest salesperson. After a long ride from New York to the Vacationland State, Mindy is shocked to see the dilapidated broken camp that is really Camp Kin-A-Hurra. She is moved to the bunk for the "mature' campers when the counselor finds her passing time by playing her clarinet. There she meets the unique assortment of girls with whom she will spend the next 8 weeks. Her bunkmates include Betty, whose nose is always in a book, Autumn Evening, who is only as into her past lives as much as this one, and Dana, her rival for the cute boy, Kenny. Being 13 in 1974 and spending with backed up toilets, stale food in continual rain was not part of the plan. "Apparently , summer was the official rainy season in this part of Maine, along with spring and fall. In winter it just snowed."

But days at Camp Kin-A-Hurra are unstructured, totally different from the summer camp to which she was accustomed. Plenty of time to visit the boys' camp, put on plays and just hang out. Not the stress of passing swimming tests, sticking to routine and keeping up with social classes. At Camp Kin-A-Hurra the facilities are not the best, or even adequate, but it is not a bad place for a young girl to discover who she might be, to stretch her horizons and flex her social muscle. "This was the Camp Kin-A-Hurra way of doing things: whatever makes everything fit." It is not a bad way of doing things when it includes people too. As she says, maybe Saul Rattner had the right idea-or maybe he was just a con man, but for that summer it all worked.

Mindy Schneider has written the quintessential memoir of growing up in the 1970s. She brings the time to life, the age that was coming from the turmoil of the 60s, a little lost, led by Nixon and suffering a small loss of identity. She uses the structure of the summer camp to look back at life where tv still rules supreme, the hippies are now the parents and . It is an examination of growing up, discovering that being yourself might be ok after all, appearance may not be everything. Schneider's ability to use details to portray the feelings of that summer, from the odor of the boy's bathroom to the the volume of her mother's voice as they take the endless car ride from Long Island to Maine. She effortlessly goes back and forth through time, never losing the rhythm of the story as she places the events in the context of her life. Her humor is the triumph of the book, the turn of phrase that lets the reader chuckle as they wince from their own memories of becoming a teenager.