Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing up Groovy and Clueless, by Susan Jane Gilman
Having read Susan Gilman’s vivid depiction of immigrant poverty and its repercussions in her novel The ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street, I wondered what else she had done. This hilarious and human memoir makes the experience of growing up in New York come alive. Middle School at Friends Seminary is a brief chapter in the life of a a writer gifted in remembering the details of her school years in all their confusion and incongruity. What a kindergartener she was. Had to wear a tutu. Had nothing for Show ‘n’ Tell so blurted out that she was changing her name to Rhinestone – no, wait a minute, to Sapphire. And what an obliging school; she was henceforth called her Sapphire.
Among her potent fantasies was the dream of running into Mick Jagger at a dinner party and catching his eye. This improbable fiction came true. The encounter was not as dreamed, however. It turned out to be cautionary tale of be-careful-what-you-wish-for. Mick in the flesh was quite the disappointment.
I am sorry to say that I do not remember whether I taught Susan. I regret this because I like the person that emerges on these pages, and I was happy to see that she stuck with French, took AP French at Stuyvesant, and ended up having the humbling experience of living for a time in French-speaking Switzerland. Humbling because no matter how many A’s you have chalked up in French in school, the reality of the language is bewildering and exhausting. I loved her story of leaving a message on her answering machine that meant “leave a message at the tuna.” The French word for tuna is “thon,” a word that ought to mean “tone.”
Susan became a writer – no surprise there.
