Rating: 
Summary: Simply Terrific!
Review: If you were ever threatened by a bully and needed a big brother to come to your rescue, read this book. If you have ever played baseball (or wish you did), read this book. And if you want to remember the extreme joys and terrible sorrows of growing up, read this book. You will not be disappointed.
Steve Kluger's Last Days of Summer is an epistolary novel set in the early 1940's about twelve-year-old Joey Margolis who is desperately in search of a hero. Despite the fact that Joey lives in Brooklyn amid rabid Dodger fans, he finds his hero in the young rookie third baseman for the rival New York Giants, Charlie Banks. Charlie is little more than an overgrown kid himself, and the two make an improbable and poignant pair as they help each other grow in ways that neither expect.
Once you read the first page, you'll be hooked and have to devour the book in one sitting. I laughed out loud at every page and, as Mr. Kluger surely intended, I cried at the end. The first thing I did after reading Last Days of Summer was call my father and tell him to read it.
The novel is woven together through letters, telegrams, postcards, notes, matchbook covers from famous New York nightclubs, ticket stubs, report cards and newspaper stories. The reader experiences the story through these evidentiary artifacts, and it makes for an easy, enjoyable journey. Joey's correspondents include his Japanese American best friend Craig Nakamura, major league baseball players, nightclub singers, famous actors and actresses, and even Eleanor Roosevelt! It seems improbable, but Kluger makes it eminently believable from start to finish.
Last Days of Summer is the kind of novel you'll want to re-read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: A book you can read in one sitting
Review: Steve Kluger has created a masterpiece of fiction with "Last Days of Summer." I received this book as a gift a few months ago and finally sat down with it this morning while waiting for the Sunday paper to arrive. And, a few hours later, the paper is still unread, but the book is finished. I COULD NOT STOP reading it. It is warm, it is enchanting and it is poignant. I can think of only one other book I've ever read in one sitting - and never before have I felt the urge to immediately contact the author and express my gratitude.So many different elements are woven seamlessly into this book - baseball, adolescence, religion, family, war, racism, love, celebrity worship and more. The format of this book, through letters, clippings and such, makes the reader feel much more involved in the book. I felt like I knew these characters, could feel what they were feeling. There was no distance between characters and readers that you would often find in a traditional narrative. This book was powerful. Whether you like baseball or not, kids or not, the '40's or not...everyone should read this book. This is by far one of the best books I've ever read, one of most well-written books I've ever read and certainly one of the most enjoyable and unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: No book i would rather read
Review: I cant talk about this book enough. I love everything about it. The witty humor, the old timer baseball references, even the jew jokes. Everyone can find something in it that reminds them of their own life. Even if you dont like baseball as much as i do you can still appreciate the realtionships in this book. My favorite thing about Kluger's writing is the way he captures relationships, in all of his novels he is able to really make you feel for the characters and not ever want to say goodbye. He can show all the imperfections about a person and how that is what makes them worth being loved by the others. If you've already read this book and need another one like to to keep you going, read "Almost Like Being in Love" and "Changing Pitches" neither are as good but both are wonderful, charming, witty and entertaining
Rating:
Summary: I FRICKIN LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: IF YOU KNOW OF OTHERS LIKE THEM E-MAIL ME. I LOVE SARCASTIC CHARACTERS, THE '40s, BASEBALL ETC... GREAT BOOK!
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