“Her keen observations are those of a Jewish teen coming of age…. This novel too has its dark edges, as Simon explores complexities of friendship and family.” —The New York Jewish Week“A thought-provoking and beautifully written book that will challenge how its readers think about how an individual weaves the tapestry of her family’s collective memory.” —Rabbi Deborah Miller, Books and Blintzes… memory.” —Rabbi Deborah Miller, Books and Blintzes
In the summer of 1955, nine-year-old Amanda Gerber tearfully leaves her best friend, Francine, and their adventurous life on her block in Brooklyn’s Flatbush. She joins her cantankerous family on the long, hot drive to her grandmother’s home in the Catskill Mountains among the city’s Jews who flock to countless hotels and bungalow colonies in the heyday of the Borscht Belt. In the idyllic mountains, Amanda becomes ensconced in the tumult of her extended family and their friends, often seeking solace in the woods with her beloved cousin Laura.
Through the following summers, interspersed with the heightened drama of her emotionally charged city life, Mandy faces severe tests to her survival mechanisms, including the pain of loss, abuse, and betrayal, while family secrets threaten to disrupt her life even further. A novel-in-stories, Floating in the Neversink is a testament to the power of survival, friendship, and love.
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With a strong sense of place and an observant young narrator who often feels invisible, Andrea Simon’s coming-of-age novel, Floating in the Neversink, sheds light on family secrets and generational trauma. Each chapter captures a snapshot of a cantankerous family, although to outsiders looking in, they would find a middleclass Jewish family living in midcentury Brooklyn during the schoolyear and spending summers in the Catskill Mountains.
The novel opens when nine-year-old Amanda Gerber, who goes by Mandy, has to say farewell to her best friend, Francine, who lives on the same block in Brooklyn. As the family heads off in their black 1955 Buick for their country home in the mountains, Mandy’s biggest concern is that Francine, who’s also Jewish, will ditch her for the Catholic girls while she’s away for the summer. As the family draws closer to their destination, Mandy and her big sister, Brenda, duck as they pass near a place where a boy died of polio. This hit me with a jolt. The author touches on so many issues that are relevant today (as we await a vaccine) as they must’ve been back in the fifties before the polio vaccine was discovered.
The novel addresses the secret life of parents, the universal need to fit in, to feel safe and accepted by members of your own family and your peers. Sometimes jealousy rears its ugly head due to misunderstandings. Bullies and predators don’t become extinct over time and they often lurk behind the nicest facades.
The writing is vivid and clear, the descriptions spot-on. In a chapter titled “The Factory,” Mandy visits the sweater factory owned by her father and uncle. This line stood out: “As far as I could see, the arms of the mechanical threaders were folded and clasped like tired old men huddled over their newspapers.”
As I read each chapter, I often referred back to the cover art to find any clues hidden in the bucolic scene of a black car rolling across an old bridge. I found myself asking this question: Will the Neversink River give up its secrets or will it be up to Mandy and her cousin Laura to seek the truth?
Along with Mandy, you will long to know about a man named Benny. Who was he and what happened to him?
Oh, Benny…
Late in the story young Mandy has a revelation: “To never hide from the truth no matter how painful.”
Throw in a beloved grandma’s country house filled with an attic bulging with relics and “terrifying objects,” and you’ve got the makings of a story that both entertains and makes you think. Whether you grew up in a Jewish household in the fifties in New York or were raised in a protestant family a decade later in another region of the country, you’ll find yourself eavesdropping in on adult conversations and trying to pick the lock on family secrets.
In her acknowledgements, Andrea Simon says her sister always encouraged her to tell her own truth even if it differed from her sister’s. When it comes to a writer pursuing her writing dreams, there is no greater gift than to receive this kind of support from a family member.
Brava to Andrea Simon. I loved this book.
I laughed and cried at these vivid stories of a girl’s Catskills summers and Brooklyn school days as she ages from nine to 15 from 1955-1961. Floating in the Neversink is a joy to read.
Andrea Simon captures the loveliness and loneliness of youth, and how she comes to terms with the contradictions of her childhood.
“Floating in the Neversink” by Andrea Simon is an emotional, dramatic, captivating and coming of age story. The Genres are Fiction and Women’s Fiction. The time-line is around 1955 and takes place in both Brooklyn and in the Catskills, where there are Bungalows and Hotels. The author writes different chapters with the same characters, possibly the same or different situations and problems. The author describes her dramatic adult characters as complex, complicated, and dysfunctional. The younger characters are coming of age, and are discovering loyalty, betrayal, and self -worth.
Amanda Gerber and her friend Francine enjoy their time together in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Amanda is sad to leave her friend behind to go with her family to the country. Amanda is close with her cousin Laura and they have some great times. Amanda and Laura go exploring and find a special place that they call theirs and write their names on a rock. Both are young girls but promise that this will be their hidden place. Do promises last forever?
The adults seem to have secrets and are always whispering. Amanda’s father seems to be a bullying sort of man and is verbally abusive to Amanda’s mother and Amanda. There is one incident with Amanda and her father by The Neversink, where people go swimming and fishing, which is both frightening and devastating.
Amanda dreads when one of her Uncles comes to visit. Amanda learns that she has to keep her own secrets. I appreciate that the author discusses such problems as mental illness, emotional and physical abuse, loyalty and betrayals, the importance of family, love, and hope. I would recommend this novel for readers who enjoy thought-provoking novels.