Summer Haven The Catskills, the Holocaust, and the Literary Imagination [Hardcover]

This volume provides for the first time a collection of writing that investigates the stories and struggles of survivors in the context of the Jewish resort culture of the Catskills, through new and existing works of fiction and memoir by writers who spent their youths there. It explores how vacationers, resort owners, and workers dealt with a horrific contradictionthe pleasure of their summer haven against the mass extermination of Jews throughout Europe. It also examines the character of Holocaust survivors in the Catskills: in what ways did they people find connection, resolution to conflict, and avenues to come together despite the experiences that set them apart? The book will be useful to those studying Jewish, American, or New York history, the Holocaust and Catskills legacy, United States immigration, American literature, and American culture. The focus on themes of nostalgia, humor, loss, and sexuality will draw general readers as well. As its sub-title proclaims,Summer Havenfocuses on the Catskills, the Holocaust and the Literary Imagination, how Jews came to America after experiencing the agony and horror of the Holocaust and experienced the unique and almost make-believe-funny and peaceful world of the Catskills. We are there through many pages of fiction, memoirs, essays, personal and general, reflections, and musings. The result is an evocation of a time and place, a way of life that belonged to history and now belongs to all of us fortunate enough to have this special book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Summer Havenbrings to life the vibrant culture of the Jewish Catskills against the backdrop of the Nazi devastation of Jewish life in Europe. I know of no other book that recreates with such richness the history and character of the Catskills and the defining culture of Yiddishkeit. Peopled by refugees and survivors, the Catskills provided a haven in response to loss and displacement, a New Jerusalem, as expressed in the literary imagination, meml£!