Bess and Frima
Page 29
You are a little sobered, looking at them. What will their future be? You allow yourself a pin prick of envy. In this quiet moment in time your own future looks short and uneventful. Still, you’ve had your time, much of it good, and if you have a few regrets, well, who doesn’t? You are at peace with yourself. But these two—that sense of promise—what of them? Neither will long be able to hide her light under a bushel. Whether she wants to or not.
The story continues in
Take the D Train: A Novel of New York in the 1950s
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My appreciation to all the people who did critical readings, supplied valuable insights, and encouraged me in this endeavor with very special thanks to Anne Ackerman, Erin Almond, Richard Almond, Steve Almond, Grace Chappell, Elaine Elinson, Julie Gantcher, David Greenberg, Dan Lettieri, Carol Rothman, Laura Rosenthal, and Robert Wernick. My gratitude also to the members of the San Francisco Village Writers’ Workshop who with their golden memories and fresh insights still write and encourage me to do so as well. I’m greatful also to all the editorial and production staff at She Writes Press for their professional dilgence and their guidance throughout this publishing process. Finally, many thanks to Jordan Kushins for generously sharing her technical expertise and outreach savvy and to my publicists Linda Quigley and Louise Crawford. All three have patiently and skillfully kept me on track during days and enabled me to sleep nights.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice Rosenthal was born and raised in the same Bronx neighborhood as her protagonists, though a generation later. With a master’s in English from NYU, she settled in the Village-Chelsea area of Manhattan, where she maintained her life style by copy editing for academic and educational presses. In 1976, she moved to San Francisco and began a new worklife teaching ESL at City College of San Francisco, which rekinded her interest in the varied experiences of immigrants to this country. She enjoys reading, gardening, baking, and shmoozing with her friends and family. She takes pleasure in good music of any kind, most especially when she engages in choral and ensemble singing. She still loves to dance—when she can. She is the author of Take the D Train: A Novel of New York in the 1950s as well as articles published in the San Francisco Chronicle and Jewish Currents magazine.
SELECTED TITLES FROM SHE WRITES PRESS
She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve women writers everywhere.
Visit us at www.shewritespress.com.
The Sweetness by Sande Boritz Berger. $16.95, 978-1-63152-907-8
A compelling and powerful story of two girls—cousins living on separate continents—whose strikingly different lives are forever changed when the Nazis invade Vilna, Lithuania.
All the Light There Was by Nancy Kricorian. $16.95, 978-1-63152-905-4
A lyrical, finely wrought tale of loyalty, love, and the many faces of resistance, told from the perspective of an Armenian girl living in Paris during the Nazi occupation of the 1940s.
The Belief in Angels by J. Dylan Yates. $16.95, 978-1-938314-64-3
From the Majdonek death camp to a volatile hippie household on the East Coast, this narrative of tragedy, survival, and hope spans more than fifty years, from the 1920s to the 1970s.
An Address in Amsterdam by Mary Dingee Fillmore. $16.95, 978-1-63152-133-1
After facing relentless danger and escalating raids for 18 months, Rachel Klein—a well-behaved young Jewish woman who transformed herself into a courier for the underground when the Nazis invaded her country—persuades her parents to hide with her in a dank basement, where much is revealed.
Tasa’s Song by Linda Kass. $16.95, 978-1-63152-064-8
From a peaceful village in eastern Poland to a partitioned post-war Vienna, from a promising childhood to a year living underground, Tasa’s Song celebrates the bonds of love, the power of memory, the solace of music, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Arboria Park by Kate Tyler Wall. $16.95, 978-1631521676
Stacy Halloran’s life has always been centered around her beloved neighborhood, a 1950s-era housing development called Arboria Park—so when a massive highway project threaten the Park in the 2000s, she steps up to the task of trying to save it.