Sleepaway [Mass Market Paperback]

Eric Simonoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2005

Margaret Atwood tells of a girl swallowed up by the woods and lost forever. Mark Oppenheimer experiences leftist utopia in a nature camp. David Sedaris avoids having a bowel movement for a month. ZZ Packer teaches a lesson in black and white to the girls of Brownie Troop 909.

These are among the stories and essays in this anthology featuring eighteen diverse writers remembering with nostalgia--as well as dread--the childhood days of summer camp. Ah, camp, where a bullied young girl with limp hair and three names will do anything to meet the demands of being popular; where Woody Guthrie is no longer a folk icon, but rather a cabin for young nudists; and where, in that Kumbaya solitude, homesickness, independence, and the need for healthy revenge all stick like s'mores to the heart and soul.

Featuring stories, essays, and cartoons by:

James Atlas
Margaret Atwood
Kevin Canty
Terry Galloway
Lev Grossman
Cynthia Kaplan
Josh Lambert
Andrea Lee
Ursula K. LeGuin
Thisbe Nissen
Mark Oppenheimer
ZZ Packer
Steven Rinehart
David Sedaris

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Simonoff has been a literary agent with Janklow & Nesbit Associates for 13 years. He attended Joseph & Betty Harlam Camp for ten straight summers when he was a youth. This is his first book.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (June 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594480885
• ISBN-13: 978-1594480881
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,784,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who went to summer camp... and those who didn't, June 16, 2005

By 

NYC Reader (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepaway (Mass Market Paperback)

To appreciate the collection of stories and essays in this book, you don't need to be familiar with life in the tents and canoes of the Poconos, but only with life itself. From old favorites like Margaret Atwood and Ursula Le Guin to lesser-known names like Josh Lambert and Terry Galloway, the authors bring their unique perspectives to an institution that stands in as a most natural microcosm of American life. While David Sedaris is hysterical as usual, it's the more serious pieces, like Atwood's tale of a life forever haunted by a childhood incident and Lambert's story of forbidden love -- and perhaps why such love should be forbidden -- that make the collection shine.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for parents, March 5, 2006

By 

G. Wiggman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepaway (Mass Market Paperback)

It's bittersweet to view the campfire nights of childhood with adult sensibilities. That's the poignancy of Eric Simonoff's Sleepaway. This compilation had me reminiscing about time spent at camp Magruder on the Oregon coast. The book was a terrific escape from our bleak mid-winter. It's filled with essays by literary heavy-hitters. A raw Margaret Atwood story rips into the unbearable pain of adolescence - (those of us deep in the throws of teenage self-absorbson were oblivious to the tragic figures loitering by the lakeside.) A hilarious ZZ Packer piece had me laughing so hard, I woke up my husband. Eric's introduction is sharp and funny. I wanted to hear more about, "The awkwardly named Josef and Betty Harlam Camp in rural Kunkletown." From the start, the introspective Sharon Olds poem places us mentally - as parents now, not kids anymore. Sleepway is a great read - or more aptly, it's a must read for parents ready to send their kids off to camp this summer. (Some of the applications are due already?)

4.0 out of 5 stars All the perks of summer camp without sleeping outside!, July 16, 2011

By 

D. Sorel "book lovah" (Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sleepaway (Paperback)

It's summer and while I am too old for summer camp, there is nothing stopping me from reading about it. It is for this reason that I picked up "Sleepaway". Though I never attended a sleep-away camp, I knew that it would make me nostalgic for summer vacations. In that regard, it hit the spot!!

As the cover shows, this collection includes numerous famous authors as well as some unknowns. The selections range from fiction, to memoir, to graphic/comics. In that aspect, the book is very well-rounded. There are eerie stories such as Margaret Atwood's "Death by Landscape" in which two best friends attend summer camp but only one returns. There are humorous tales like Mark Oppenheimer's remembrances of spending summer at a nudist camp only to spend the following summer at a leftist camp. If you're looking for a story to pull at your heartstrings, Kevin Canty's "Flipper" and Josh Lambert's "The Brief Summer of Amir and Ariella" will do just that. "The Performance of Drowning" and "Apple Pie" had me completely captivated and I could easily have read a full novel based on both stories.

Of course, there were some duds in the collection. But these were very few and far between. I wold definitely recommend this as a summer read that fits perfectly into your beach bag.