Karen Camara

Songs from the Street: a Native New Yorker Comes of Age in the Fifties Karen Camara

Songs from the Street is about a native New Yorker coming of age in the fifties, from age eleven to age twenty. The success story of a Jewish girl and her Puerto Rican friends is a combination of circumstance, luck, and learning from mistakes. Karen's story includes coping with a dysfunctional alcoholic family, days of excellent schooling contrasted with nights in the street, a drug-addicted boyfriend, a May-December romance with a high school teacher, and the culture shock encountered in educational and economic border-crossing. In addition to the story of one person and her friends, the narrative provides a universal paradigm of growth anyone can identify with. Moreover, the book includes a wealth of 1950's cultural and historical information not typically found in memoirs. This includes city tales about life on the rooftops and under the boardwalks, Forty-second Street before Disney, and Alan Freed's rock and roll shows. Whether your interest is in New York City, the fifties, or a teenager coming of age under adverse circumstances, the reader will be entertained and educated.