Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1392574 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-01
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

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.

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

Customer Reviews

An unintentionally poetic inspiring memoir
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.

well written memoir
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.

Sometimes uncomfortable...
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.