Vincent Calaman

Ilona's New York Odyssey Vincent Calaman

This is a story of Ilona - a young girl, from an immigrant Hungarian family - and her trials and tribulations as she grows from a child to a young woman. But, unusually, this is a true story, one told in Ilonas's own words, culler from her memories, and told to and written down by her husband. We meet Pearl and Julius, Ilonas's parents - strict, particular, sometimes almost abusive, but fundamentally loving; Linda, her best friend; and a cast of other characters, such as the rumbustious farming McConnel family on Long Island. Told in Ilona's own, unsophisticated language, well recorded and set down, this is a very special record of the events, some small and some more significant, of growing up in New York. It is a story that is at once very ordinary and quite remarkable.