New Moon

The grandson of famed Catskill resort owner Jennie Grossinger, Richard Grossinger grew up in a Manhattan apartment with his mother, stepfather, brother and sister and attended private schools. In this affecting, gracefully written memoir, Grossinger details his unhappy childhood, which was punctuated by episodes of panic. His mother so resented his attachment to his father, Paul, with whom he lived at Jennie Grossinger's resort during school vacations, that she consistently behaved as though she hated Richard and publicly favored his brother. Observing his son's emotional distress, Paul arranged for Richard to undergo Freudian psychoanalysis, an experience that he describes here. The author skillfully evokes the world of '50s New York and Grossinger's Catskills as well as the counterculture of the '60s, which he was drawn to while attending Amherst College.