Rating: 
Summary: A Book to Get Lost In
Review: I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get lost in Brooklyn, circa 1947. There is some fantasy involved towards the end that perhaps might not seem plausable at all--however, if you take the whole of the book it just works. Well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Super Read
Review: An enjoyable and sweet story. There are few storytellers as engaging and talented as Pete Hamill. This book harkens back to an earlier time where people of different backgrounds learned about their neighors' cultures without the forced and sanctimonious multiculturalism we see today. It reminded me of the stories that Colin Powell tells of learning to speak Yiddish in the South Bronx. The book also contains an interesting treatment of Jewish mysticism woven into the narrative. One of the best stories that I have read in awhile.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT book - until the end
Review: I agree with the reviewer above who thought the book was great except for the last 40 pages. Pete Hamill is a great writer and writes vividly about a young Catholic boy who befriends a rabbi. They learn from each other - and the reader, in turn, learns quite a bit about religion, struggle, and friendship. The book is intense and you will not want to put it down! It is unfortunate in the way it ends, however. It just is not a believable or even possible ending, in my opinion. I thought I might have missed a detail when I was reading the events that unfurl at the end, so I even re-read the last 2 chapters - but it still was unsettling, and I didn't miss any details. It's a great book until the ending. This high quality story deserves a much better ending than the one Pete Hamill chose to give it. Read this book for the learning experience and 90% of the book - the last 10% is just not the way it should have ended.
| 
