Brighton Beach Memoirs is Simon’s funny, yet touching semi-autobiographical portrait of a Jewish-American family as seen through the eyes of a 15-year-old boy, Eugene Morris Jerome. In the post-depression, pre-war-era Brooklyn, the most pressing thoughts on the mind of Neil Simon’s protagonist are baseball and girls. Living with six other family members under one roof doesn’t afford young Eugene much privacy, but it does provide him with plenty of ammunition for his nascent career as a wri...
Brighton Beach Memoirs is Simon’s funny, yet touching semi-autobiographical portrait of a Jewish-American family as seen through the eyes of a 15-year-old boy, Eugene Morris Jerome. In the post-depression, pre-war-era Brooklyn, the most pressing thoughts on the mind of Neil Simon’s protagonist are baseball and girls. Living with six other family members under one roof doesn’t afford young Eugene much privacy, but it does provide him with plenty of ammunition for his nascent career as a writer. In excerpts from his journal, he introduces his over-worked father, his under-appreciated mother, his comparatively–worldly older brother Stanley, his cousins Nora (the beautiful star-in-training) and Laurie (the pampered bookworm), and his widowed, asthmatic Aunt Blanche. The resulting coming-of-age story is an affectionate, thoroughly entertaining lesson in overcoming hard times with warmth, tears, laughter and humor.
