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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The author, a professor of sociology at Brown University and co-founder of the Catskills Institute, this book is an examination of his childhood legacy. He grew up a "mountain rat" in the Catskills where his mother worked as a chef, his father in various resort occupations; Brown himself had numerous jobs. His visits as an adult to his old haunts reveal a changed emotional and social landscape. Most of the bungalow colonies and once-grand and second-rate hotels are vacant or burned down and the resorts still alive today are run by Orthodox Jews or have become New Age ashrams. A once vibrant culture, "a major facet of the Jewish experience," has, says Brown, disappeared with the secularization of Jewish daily life and the growth of affordable airline travel. Lasting for a good part of the 20th century, the Catskills were a community that went beyond a simple vacation escape. Tourism grew with demands for better facilities and entertainment. There was a magic in mountain life for the workers and for the summer residents that became truly glitzy with the addition of big-name entertainers. In 1991, Brown first began to see his roots as "grist for an ethnography" and from that time on he read, compiled oral histories and, in 1995, organized the first annual "History of the Catskills" conference. It was, he said, a "spiritual homecoming." Because of his fond experience, Brown's ethnography is much warmer, more personal than most. It is a documentary of assimilation and of a return to one's roots. An appendix lists 926 hotels. 91 b&w photos. (Oct.) FYI: Temple also published Irwin Richman's Borscht Belt Bungalows: Memories of Catskill Summers (Forecasts, Nov. 17, 1997).
From Library Journal
Warm and poignant memories of a bygone place and time, the Borscht Belt of the 1950s, fill this memoir-cum-socioethnological study. A small resort area that catered to New Yorkers and was a catalyst in the Americanization of the immigrant Jewish population, the Catskill Mountains also served as the training ground of many of the comedians and writers who are so well known today. Brown's parents were owners of a small hotel in the area, where he worked during his college years; subsequently, Brown (sociology, Brown Univ.) became cofounder of the Catskills Institute. Using photographs and interviews, he takes a nostalgic look at the Borscht Belt and its decline. The old bungalows and hotels, in rundown condition, are now being used by Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities. A pleasant read with a scholarly bent; recommended for libraries with ethno-American, New York State, or Judaica collections.?Idelle Rudman, Touro Coll. Lib., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
The author, a professor of sociology at Brown University and co-founder of the Catskills Institute, this book is an examination of his childhood legacy. He grew up a "mountain rat" in the Catskills where his mother worked as a chef, his father in various resort occupations; Brown himself had numerous jobs. His visits as an adult to his old haunts reveal a changed emotional and social landscape. Most of the bungalow colonies and once-grand and second-rate hotels are vacant or burned down and the resorts still alive today are run by Orthodox Jews or have become New Age ashrams. A once vibrant culture, "a major facet of the Jewish experience," has, says Brown, disappeared with the secularization of Jewish daily life and the growth of affordable airline travel. Lasting for a good part of the 20th century, the Catskills were a community that went beyond a simple vacation escape. Tourism grew with demands for better facilities and entertainment. There was a magic in mountain life for the workers and for the summer residents that became truly glitzy with the addition of big-name entertainers. In 1991, Brown first began to see his roots as "grist for an ethnography" and from that time on he read, compiled oral histories and, in 1995, organized the first annual "History of the Catskills" conference. It was, he said, a "spiritual homecoming." Because of his fond experience, Brown's ethnography is much warmer, more personal than most. It is a documentary of assimilation and of a return to one's roots. An appendix lists 926 hotels. 91 b&w photos. (Oct.) FYI: Temple also published Irwin Richman's Borscht Belt Bungalows: Memories of Catskill Summers (Forecasts, Nov. 17, 1997).
Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Warm and poignant memories of a bygone place and time, the Borscht Belt of the 1950s, fill this memoir-cum-socioethnological study. A small resort area that catered to New Yorkers and was a catalyst in the Americanization of the immigrant Jewish population, the Catskill Mountains also served as the training ground of many of the comedians and writers who are so well known today. Brown's parents were owners of a small hotel in the area, where he worked during his college years; subsequently, Brown (sociology, Brown Univ.) became cofounder of the Catskills Institute. Using photographs and interviews, he takes a nostalgic look at the Borscht Belt and its decline. The old bungalows and hotels, in rundown condition, are now being used by Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities. A pleasant read with a scholarly bent; recommended for libraries with ethno-American, New York State, or Judaica collections.?Idelle Rudman, Touro Coll. Lib., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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