Rating: 
Summary: "A must read for those who enjoy WWII stories"
Review: A friend of mine (author of Rightous Revenge) suggested this book. I'm glad she did. 'Street Boys' is a compelling story blending pieces of history with fiction. The characters are colorful and the plot anything but predictable. An appealing combination.John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
California
Rating:
Summary: "A must read for those who enjoy WWII stories"
Review: A friend of mine (author of Rightous Revenge) suggested this book. I'm glad she did. 'Street Boys' is a compelling story blending pieces of history with fiction. The characters are colorful and the plot anything but predictable. An appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
California
Rating: 
Summary: Helpless no more
Review: Blessed are peacemakers, for they say things like, "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" Gandhi was right, of course, but what if the orphans and the homeless fought back? That's the premise of Lorenzo Carcaterra's new novel, "Street Boys," in which a ragged brigade of children rises up against a cold-blooded enemy in World War II. "Street Boys" is a departure from Carcaterra's engaging but darker stories about crime and punishment on New York's meanest streets. But like the best-selling "Sleepers," "Apaches," "A Safe Place" and "Gangster," it's bound by the threads of survival and rootless youth. This isn't Hell's Kitchen or the Bronx, though. It's no man's land: bombed-out Naples in 1943. Among the last people in the evacuated city are lost, abandoned children whose only goal is to survive another day. Survival transforms them into fierce commandos, facing a Nazi tank division sent to demolish the ancient Italian city before Allied armies arrive. The sadistic orders from Hitler himself: If the city can't belong to the FŸhrer, it will belong to no one. When Cpl. Steve Connors, a 25-year-old American soldier assigned to scout the city ahead of Gen. George Patton's advance, gets cut off from his own unit, he finds new comrades among Naples' young resistance fighters. Armed with salvaged guns, unexploded German bombs and their own ingenuity, Connors and his army of children are determined to deflect the Nazis and save the city -- or die. But Carcaterra has seldom made conflict easy. His good guys are often a little bad, and his bad guys are sometimes gifted with endearing, even redeeming, qualities. In our real world, such complexities are a fact of life; in commercial fiction, it's rare. Carcaterra's ambitious cast of characters is deftly drawn. Vincenzo Soldari, a 16-year-old history buff determined to follow in his ancestors' footsteps, is the real leader of the children's army. He's helped by Carlo Maldini, a middle-aged drunkard desperate to redeem himself, and his daughter Nunzia, a ferocious guerrilla who falls in love with the American GI who comes to their aid. Carcaterra is working on the screenplay of "Street Boys," to be directed by Oscar-winner Barry Levinson. The book lends itself to good cinema: intricate characters, underdogs facing insurmountable odds, a desperate mission and lots of explosions -- the stuff of our best American war movies, from "For Whom the Bell Tolls" to "Saving Private Ryan." No less complex than World War II novels by Norman Mailer and James Jones, "Street Boys" explores a different perspective on the war, and rides a fast-paced plot toward a heroic ending. The end of the war and the Allied invasion of Italy are well-known, but it is the transformation of characters along the way that defines the quality of historical fiction. In "Street Boys," Carcaterra paints a vivid portrait of children at war, not as its helpless victims, but fighting back.
Rating: 
Summary: Not UpTo Past Standards
Review: During WW II, when the Nazis realized their fate was sealed, the city of Naples became a target for their frustration and maniacal tenets of supremacy and destruction. Realizing they would no longer be able to use Naples as a strategic offensive locale, the orders were given to raze it to the ground. There were 200 children orphaned and abandoned in the city they identified as their home. STREET BOYS is the story of their tenacious and magical efforts to prevent the Nazis from achieving their goal. The universal theme of Good vs. Evil is depicted throughout the book, many times unfortunately, in vignettes that defy belief. Carcaterra's weakness in this book is his inability to abut the edge of absurdity but never cross it. Instead, the important scenes are so incredible even the most gullible reader will struggle to swallow without choking. Several times the youth, untrained and out-manned, engage the evil Nazis in battle and emerge victorious. The "kiddie guerrillas" manage to initially arm themselves with rifles previously jettisoned in 40 ft of water which they retrieve, dry out, and learn to expertly shoot. The youthful combatants also recover machineguns, ammo, grenades and tanks with minimum casualties while maximizing the kill of the trained but inefficient enemy. I have liked Carcaterra's previous work but STREET BOYS falls short of his past excellence. It is very difficult to recommend but if you must read it, use the library.
Rating:
Summary: A heartfelt Story
Review: Fiction can imitate fact as in this story. Some complain that this was based on a true happening ergo not fiction. Is not most fiction born that way?. Our minds work off of what happens and questions what if? I found it to be a good story,and well written with the feelings of a combat veteran well defined. I have read all of his books and find this one to be another fine writing.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste, and knock-off.
Review: Having been somewhat of a fan in the past, I thought I'd get a bit of a lift out of Carcaterra's latest work. Unfortunately, the only lift out of this made-for-the-screen tripe is what Carcaterra took from earlier and vastly better renditions of the historic boys uprising in Naples over those four days in 1943. He says in the opening that the locations and scenes are wholly new and what he created for "Street Boys," but it was all done before in much better, truer, and heartfelt books. A few earlier reviews list some, but one in particular that comes to mind is a book called "Four Days of Naples." Not to mention, the Italians made a movie as well, and it was up for an Academy Award. I wonder if Carcaterra read or saw any of those. I wouldn't be surprised given all the hoopla that surrounded the validity and release of his earlier "Sleepers." Anyway, all I'm trying to say here is that I was very disappointed in the book. The material deserves a much better focus and sincere author, someone who actually cares as much about the historic boys as Carcaterra does the check he probably received for hacking out this paper-thin comic.
Rating: 
Summary: The truth is stranger (and better) than Fiction
Review: How much liberty should a fiction writer have over a true and heroic effort of history? Street Boys is an inventive tale of the events of those riveting four days, but why stray so far from the truth? Heroes of the past deserve a just tribute, and in this case the truth is far more gripping. There was no American star that taught these poor boys to fight, and moreover, the bravest of the boys who did on their own were each awarded Gold medals of Honor for valor, an all-empowering fact that Carcaterra seemingly overlooked in his fiction. An enthralling depiction closer to the truth can be found in the 1980 book and now audiocassette title "Four Days of Naples" or the 1963 Academy Award nominated film of the same name by Nanni Loy. It will be interesting to see if Carcaterra's 2002 tale receives as much acclaim. Though I seriously doubt it.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER
Review: I had to convince my library to but it, but it was worth it. This is one of the best books that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Cliched, formulaic, awful
Review: I kept thinking, while I was reading Street Boys, that this book is a terrible insult to the actual street fighters who held off the nazis and their panzers in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, only to be lost in the end. The author, to compound the error, makes every action scene uninteresting and unbelievable, and every emotional scene (death and love) devoid of emotion. Episodes of dying children are smarmy or corny, or both at once. Children outsmart and overwhelm seasoned soldiers who have far superior firepower at every turn. Even the most egregious mistakes supposedly made by the Germans would not have enabled outnumbered and overmatched children to destroy a panzer division and hundreds of enemy troops, along with a German tanker. I hope no one buys this book. I hope no one pays to see the movie. I hope people read Mila 18 by Leon Uris instead.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: I purchased this book because it was about two of my favorite topics, Naples and WWII. The author lured me into thinking this was a historical novel, but that is not true. He has no sense of geography. Anyone standing in Naples and facing the sea will have Vesuvio to their LEFT, not the right. Salerno is SOUTH of Naples. There were many errors in the Italian phrases in the book. The story seemed based on early sixties war films. Connors jeep apparently had a bottomless fuel tank. In spite of fierce battles all around, he and Nunzia find time for a "quickie". The German Colonel reacts to everything by slamming his fist on something. Charecters appearing in one part of the city, then another part of the city without the benefit of public transportation. There are countless true stories about the bravery of the Sgunnizzi [street boys] that need to be told. Perhaps another author will do them justice.
| 
