My View From the Mountains: A Catskill Memoir

Much has been written about the Catskill Mountains resort experience as enjoyed by untold numbers of first- and second-generation Jews who, in the early part of the 20th century, had been shut out of many other resorts because of anti-Semitism. While the hotels were indeed as wonderful as many novels and histories describe them, this book is different. It tells a sometimes piercingly honest story of the family that ran the Brickman, one of the most successful Catskills resorts. It is a tale of blood ties as strained by a sometimes ruthless business, explosive secrets, sex and drugs. But this story also is about a deep familial love, hard work, commitment and a winding path to self-knowledge. Patti Posner, daughter of one of the two brothers who ran the hotel, reveals (and thus preserves) the day-to-day life and inner workings of this now vanished world of hospitality, along with the human story behind it all.