Catskill Culture: A Mountain Rat's Memories of the Great Jewish Resort Area by Phil Brown

Catskill Culture: A Mountain Rat's Memories of the Great Jewish Resort Area Reviews

• 
  Abigail G

  I found this to be a wonderful bit of history of New York that most people would never know about. This definately was a book of nostalgia for the author yet he managed to not make it too biased and balanced out various perspectives. It makes me think about my own childhood, though it was not too long ago, and place more significance in the memories. Through this book he managed to display several changes of generations and display priorities of each. It was a lot of information and even more soul.
• 
  K.T. Katzmann

  Rule #1: If I'm going to murder a half dozen people somewhere, I better understand that place. So, given that I'm working on an upcoming book set in a bungalow colony, I picked this one up.
  
  The Jewish Catskills were an interesting phenomena where New York Jews settled the mountains and filled them with summer resorts. That's pretty useful if a lot of the existing places put "NO HEBREWS" on their brochures. The author did a lot of work in his younger years in the area, so he's got a feel for the history, culture, and atmosphere.
  
  It wasn't entirely what I needed, but I don't fault Brown for that. His youth was spent in the hotels, and detail on them peppered with funny anecdotes make up the majority of the book. One chapter focused on the bungalow colonies, weird little clusters of cabins rented for months on end. Still, I got what I needed.
  
  I admit, this is a pretty niche slice of history, but if you need a book on it, this one was funny and extremely well-researched. I'm going to try "Borscht Belt Bungalows" next; it seems to have some more of the seedy side of things.
  
  Then I'm going to sit down at the word processor and kill about a half-dozen teenagers in the woods over a knish. Good times.
• 
  Susan Grodsky

  I began reading this book by pure chance. I was in the library, rushing to pick up my holds from the designated shelf, when I noticed this title, abandoned on a table. Intrigued, I picked it up and took it home, without even looking inside. Yes, people certainly do judge a book by its cover.
  
  So maybe I can't complain that this wasn't the book I hoped it to be. It's a memoir and not the socio-historical study I wanted.
  
  Although Brown doesn't present the story in a well organized and chronological way, I was able to perceive that outlines of borscht belt history.
  
  It seems that the first Jewish residents of Sullivan and Ulster Counties were farmers operating dairy and egg farms.
  
  During the summers, the farmers took in boarders, renting out a spare room or so.
  
  These boarders evolved into "kuchalyns" -- "cook alones". Boarders cooked for themselves, no doubt using produce from the farm.
  
  Then came the bungalow colonies and, more or less synchronously, the hotels. (I remember visiting a cousin at her family's bungalow in "the Laurentians" north of Montreal.)
  
  So now we are in the 1940s or so, the golden age of the borscht belt. Here is where Brown's sociological analysis skills should come to the fore, telling us who came to which places, for how long, what they ate, what they discussed, how much they paid. Who entertained. What music they played. Who did stand up comedy, what the jokes were about, and why those topics jelled with the audiences.
  
  Instead we get (many times): we worked really hard, you learned to get along with folks, everyone was a deal maker, the long hours were hard on your health.
  
  Woodstock, that cultural event that occurred in the heart of the borscht belt, gets half a sentence. "Dirty Dancing", the classic movie set in a fictional hotel, is not even mentioned.
  
  Phil Brown seems like a fun guy to have coffee with, though you'd have to listen a lot and not try to steer the conversation.
  
  He just didn't write the book I wanted.
• 
  char

  A fascinating blend of history, ethnography, and memoir. Having grown up working in the Mountains, Brown is able to infuse his analysis with his own memories and insights. I especially appreciate the depth and diversity he brings to the topic. It's easy to focus on the guests and entertainment at the hotels but he makes sure to include the bungalows and kuchalayns and all levels of employees from the saladmen (what a title!) to the binnies. Many of the oral history anecdotes were my favorite parts, and his comparison to excerpts from novels (often written by authors who were "Mountain rats") was an interesting choice.
  
  If there is one disadvantage to his personal involvement, it's his writings on current Orthodox and Hasidic communities and other organizations that now occupy the area. Juxtaposed to his and others' nostalgia, it's impossible to read his descriptions as anything but disappointed and sad, which unfortunately reinforces a lot of anti-Orthodox attitudes seen throughout the Jewish world.
• 
  Andrew Horton

  This is the warm and fun side of the Jewish Catskill experience, the actual history and circumstance behind the Borscht Belt, Dirty Dancing, Sweet Lorraine, and so on. It's a loving and nostalgic read, but Phil Brown is also a sociologist by trade, so it doesn't skimp on sociocultural/political context.