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Summary: Roger Kahn vividly describes his days with Brookyln Dodgers.
Review: The "Boys of Summer" is a fascinating book. Roger Kahn vividly descibes his days with the likes of Robinson, Reese, Durocher, Labine, Erskine, Cox,Black, Campenella.
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Summary: The game and the Men who played it
Review: The Boys of Summer is an excellent combination of sports journalism, autobiography and insight into what makes baseball great. A diverse group of men mesh into one of the most beloved teams in history. From the trials and tribulations of Jackie Robinson, to the anger of Carl Furillo this book does justice to an amazing time in American history and to the aftermath of a life in pro sports. The triumphs and tragedies of these men are portrayed here with grace and not a little poetry. A wonderful book.
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Summary: A deeply moving story of the Jackie Robinson Dodgers
Review: There's no sugarcoating of the Jackie Robinson Dodgers in this story. We see them in full, pioneers, bigots, fathers and husbands.The way that they have survived the changes in their lives says far more about their character than any penny-ante poem or polemic. Kahn lived and worked with these men for two years, and his achievement is that he makes us feel that we knew them as well as he did.
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Summary: A Baseball Clasic
Review: This book is about more than just baseball, it is about life. The effects of this great sport are felt in everyday life by real people. The Boys of Summer makes this connection and any person that thinks they are a true baseball fan must read this book
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Summary: A Classic Book about a Classic Team
Review: This book is so good that as soon as I finished it, I started reading it again. No wonder it's considered a classic! Time after time, Kahn blew me away with prose that on occasion rises almost to poetry and that is never less than first-rate, whether he's writing about his own life and what brought him to his enduring love of baseball, or the Dodgers team that so won his heart (and mine!) in the early 1950s. Few books have moved me as this one did, both by its content and the sheer excellence of its writing. Kahn is no mere sports writer--he's an artist. And he's writing about so much more than just a couple of baseball seasons. His broader subjects are human mortality, the passage of time, the relentless process of ageing, the slow or swift destruction of dreams, the outrages of bigotry, the painfully slow progress of racial integration, and the open-ended Socratic enterprise of knowing oneself. Although Kahn doesn't have a lot of advanced education, the book makes clear that he comes from an intellectual family and it reflects his wide-ranging but never intrusive erudition. Even the title, taken from a poem by Dylan Thomas, is so perfect for the subject that it has entered ordinary speech as a synonym for baseball players in their fleeting prime. But it helps to know the whole line ("I see the boys of summer in their ruin," to feel the full impact of Kahn's work. This is a beautiful but profoundly sad book, worlds removed from the peppy cliches of conventional sports writing. The pace of the book is as leisurely as that of a baseball game. We hear a lot about Kahn himself at the beginning, before he's launched in his career as a young sports writer, covering the team he's always idolized: the Brooklyn Dodgers. We follow him, and the team, through the 1952 and 1953 seasons, with their triumphs and heart-breaks. Then Kahn fast-forwards his readers a decade or so, into the turbulent mid-1960s and relates his personal odyssey of tracking down members of that 1952-53 Dodger team. The resulting interviews, with a chapter per player, form the last section of the book and are quietly but devastatingly poignant. At the time of Kahn's reunions with them, none of the former players were old by any standard other than the unforgiving one of professional sports--they were in their 40s and early 50s. But by then most had lost their athletic physiques and few had achieved much in the way of post-baseball success; all (except the perennially newsworthy Jackie Robinson and Mets manager Gil Hodges) were living in relative obscurity and a couple were existing barely above the poverty level. Several had experienced personal tragedies: we witness Carl Erskine devoting himself to raising his fourth child, a boy with Down Syndrome, and Clem Labine in painful estrangement from his only son, who had a leg blown off in Vietnam. Most difficult to bear is the image of cheerful, roly-poly Roy Campanella as a mangled quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair after a car accident. Fifty years have passed since those beautiful boys of summer--Robinson, Reese, Hodges, Furillo, Snider, Campanella, Erskine, Roe and Labine are the ones I remember most vividly--lit up my childhood with their marvelous baseball playing. Kahn's book provided an opportunity to relive some of the best moments of my own youth. For readers who saw those players in the flesh, as well as for younger fans who never saw them play, but heard about them, this book is an absolute MUST HAVE. Buy a hardback edition if you can find one--it will become a family heirloom.
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Summary: This great book is not about baseball --it's about Life.
Review: This is easily one of the best 5 books I've ever read. Although the book is obstensibly about the 1955 Brooklyn Dodger World Champions it is really about what happens to people (not just ballplayers) after they've reached their peak. The names are well known to anybody who follows baseball and one --Jackie Robinson-- to anybody who is familiar with American culture. Those names and their exploits are the hook, but what happens to the team members after their glorious victories are funny, sad, inspiring, depressing, poignant and always moving. Roger Kahn beautifully captures the sunsets of the lives of the people who were the '55 Dodgers. I'm a bit biased because I'm a lifelong Dodger fan (born in the year the Dodgers moved to L.A.) and I, of course, love baseball, but whenever I put down this book I felt I wasn't reading a "sports" book (a genre unfairly looked down upon). I was reading about Life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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Summary: A classic that should be required reading for any sports fan
Review: This is one of the books that I had considered reading since I was a young man in love with baseball for the first time. In a sense, I'm glad I waited all these years to finally read it. I think that I would not have enjoyed it at 14 the way I did at 28. The book is beautiful elegy and mediation on a time long gone and the men who made up it's glory. They bear littler resemblance to the stars of today. I grew up with stories of the '52 World Series and the Dodgers. This book gave me the gift of being able to exprience a bit of what my grandfather and father shared on that October day in 1952 as Joe Black took the mound against the Yankees. I've always held the Dodgers in awe (the BRooklyn version at least) and this book allows me to see the men who made up those times as real people. Pee Wee Reese emerges as Kahn's hero in the baseball parts. I would argue that his father, Gordon, was almost as heroic to him. It is beautiful book about boys, their fathers, and the ties that bind us to what is still, even in this day and age, the single greatest game ever invented. This is a classic that should be read by every fan. Thank you, Mr. Kahn.
Rating:
Summary: A classic that should be required reading for any sports fan
Review: This is one of the books that I had considered reading since I was a young man in love with baseball for the first time. In a sense, I'm glad I waited all these years to finally read it. I think that I would not have enjoyed it at 14 the way I did at 28. The book is beautiful elegy and mediation on a time long gone and the men who made up it's glory. They bear littler resemblance to the stars of today. I grew up with stories of the '52 World Series and the Dodgers. This book gave me the gift of being able to exprience a bit of what my grandfather and father shared on that October day in 1952 as Joe Black took the mound against the Yankees. I've always held the Dodgers in awe (the BRooklyn version at least) and this book allows me to see the men who made up those times as real people. Pee Wee Reese emerges as Kahn's hero in the baseball parts. I would argue that his father, Gordon, was almost as heroic to him. It is beautiful book about boys, their fathers, and the ties that bind us to what is still, even in this day and age, the single greatest game ever invented. This is a classic that should be read by every fan. Thank you, Mr. Kahn.
Rating:
Summary: More than a baseball book
Review: To use a bit of a cliche, saying that is just a book about baseball is like saying Moby Dick is just a book about a whale. The Boys of Summer deals with one man's different perceptions of baseball players over time, as they change from demigods to mere mortals. The book starts with Kahn's recollections of childhood, when the Brooklyn Dodgers were heroes. As he reaches adulthood, he is lucky enough to get an opportunity to report on his favorite team, and he learns that these players are more flawed than they seem at a distance. In the second half of the book, it is years later, and Kahn sees what retirement has done to the players. There was a time that baseball was the dominant sport in the U.S., and there is something sad in seeing these idols - worshipped by kids and adults alike - forced into mundane existences by age. There is more: a lot of insights into racism and various players reactions to integration in baseball. This is a great book about the Boys of Summer, those Brooklyn Dodgers who played great ball from 1947 to 1957. For fans of baseball, this book is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: More than a baseball book
Review: To use a bit of a cliche, saying that is just a book about baseball is like saying Moby Dick is just a book about a whale. The Boys of Summer deals with one man's different perceptions of baseball players over time, as they change from demigods to mere mortals. The book starts with Kahn's recollections of childhood, when the Brooklyn Dodgers were heroes. As he reaches adulthood, he is lucky enough to get an opportunity to report on his favorite team, and he learns that these players are more flawed than they seem at a distance. In the second half of the book, it is years later, and Kahn sees what retirement has done to the players. There was a time that baseball was the dominant sport in the U.S., and there is something sad in seeing these idols - worshipped by kids and adults alike - forced into mundane existences by age. There is more: a lot of insights into racism and various players reactions to integration in baseball. This is a great book about the Boys of Summer, those Brooklyn Dodgers who played great ball from 1947 to 1957. For fans of baseball, this book is a must-read.
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