Word: simonizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Kate Simon, best known as the author of guidebooks, is one of those rare writers who is preternaturally incapable of composing a dull sentence. Here, for example, are the pickings of a random sampling of her work. A description of a Canal Street flea market from New York Places and Pleasures: "Inside, a sizable jungle of loose white and tan shoelaces, Dracula banks which need batteries for pushing out a pale green hand to grasp a coin, among the books one volume of an obsolete encyclopedia and a novel by Clare Boothe Luce." From Mexico Places and Pleasures: "One young...
Similar bijoux abound in Simon's books about England and, of all places, the Bronx. The northernmost borough of New York City was the setting for the author's childhood, recounted with striking imagery and emotional precision in Bronx Primitive (1982). It too is a sort of travel book. A four-year-old Kate and her rachitic younger brother are transported thousands of miles from Poland to the U.S. at the end of World War I. The girl discovers the American air to be full of strange odors and foreign languages, especially English. She is part of a typical "Jewish...
...Simon's sequel, A Wider World, begins on the day of her elementary-school graduation, a rite of passage that, she remembers tartly, called for "light rejoicing." Mother buys her a rose; Father gives her the withering news that she can go to high school for only one year of secretarial courses. The 13- year-old's response introduces the principal motif of the book, if not the dominant theme of her life: "Here I stand, hobbled in a sack of doom, determined to tear out of it, knowing that I will...
...Dickens, such pluck and clarity of intent are completely captivating. A dud in bookkeeping class but an outstanding English student, Simon manages a transfer to an academic high school. Her lively essays attract attention. She has other notable attributes: blond hair, blue eyes, a sensuous mouth and a fortune in cheekbones. But even James Monroe High is a bit restricting. Foreshadowing the future world traveler, she writes, "I had no time for step- by-step projects; the urgent need was for swift voyages, with short stops at many ports of call...
...Kahn '87 Brooke A. Masters '89 Jennifer L. Mnookin '88 John N. Rosenthal '87 Editorial Editor: J. Andrew Mendelsohn '87 Feature Editor: D. Joseph Menn '87 Copy Editor: Brooke A. Masters '89 Photo Editors: Robert M. Alexander '86 Ian M. Rose '88 Sports Editor: Jessica A. Dorman '88 Geoffrey Simon '88 Business Editor: John P. Siracuse...