First published 1999
Simon Sloan walks the streets of Brighton Beach in the 1930s, absorbing the rhythms of his Jewish neighborhood. The voices around him crackle with distinctive speech patterns and neighborhood gossip. As Simon moves from boyhood through his college years at Brooklyn College, he dreams of becoming an artist while navigating the peculiar characters and situations that populate his world. The approaching war looms over everything. Simon faces his induction into the army, leaving behind the only community he has ever known. Markfield captures the texture of this specific time and place through Simon's eyes, finding humor in the everyday interactions and cultural quirks that define his Brighton Beach existence. The story follows Simon's coming of age against the backdrop of a neighborhood teeming with personality and the weight of impending change.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Brighton Beach, Brooklyn College
Period: 1930s
387 pages · Paperback · Dalkey Archive Press