Benjamin Kritzer

Rating:
Summary: A very, very good book
Review: I have not read a book like that in simply ages, simply ages.

Bruce Kimmel San may be known to many of you as a legendary megastar of the record industry and perhaps as a legendary megadirector of the silver screen. But now he is close to entering the ranks of the legendary megaauthors of the American novel.

The childhood in this book is depicted in such glowing and humorous detail that I simply could not put it down. I, of course, grew up far, far from the Los Angeles of Benjamin Kritzer. But from a very early age I was fascinated by the American cinema and the English popular songs that formed the personal world of this young boy, so the references did not fall on deaf ears, or, in this case, on blind eyes.

I laughed and laughed and laughed at poor Benjamin's attempts to understand the vagueries of American slang and metaphors, for I have endured the same confusion in trying to learn your quirky and illogical language.

I cried and cried at the heartbreaking childhood love story, and you will too.

Whether you are a legendary megastar of the silver screen like me or of more humble persuasion, I am sure you will enjoy this book and want to reread it as soon as you reach the back cover, which is on the right.

Your Sushi

Rating:
Summary: Benjamin Kritzer
Review: One of the best books I've read, "Benjamin Kritzer" captures perfectly the innocence of youth, the joy of first love, and the strangeness of little Jewish boys from Los Angeles. A sweet, endearing novel, anyone can relate to "Benjaming Kritzer". I'm a fifteen year old Long Island girl, and my English teacher (who, like Benjamin Kritzer, grew up in LA in the 1950s) and I bonded over how we both feel as though we are/were Benjamin Kritzers. Read this book! Its youthful exuberance is utterly timeless.

Rating:
Summary: What is it, fish?
Review: With amazing skill and artfulness Benjamin Kritzer achieves what all great stories seek to achieve: it captures the reader and draws them in to the story until the characters live and breathe on their own and the story flashes in full color before your eyes. Bruce Kimmel's unique and colorful writing style gives soul to his characters and with dizzying details recreates 1950's Los Angeles in the minds of his readers. Drawing memories of his own youth, he paints a bittersweet portrait of a young Jewish boy dauntlessly moving through late childhood, enduring first love, first loss, and a wacky family that remains ridiculously unaware of the precocious child living under their roof.
For people like me who were born far too late to experience the 50's in Los Angeles or anywhere else for that matter, Benjamin Kritzer captures the imagination and introduces us to a bygone era of innocence and simple pleasures that will, no matter when you were born, create a feeling of nostalgia and longing for the not-so-simple days of childhood.
Benjamin Kritzer will make you laugh, make you cry, and most of all make you wish that there was still somewhere around that sold vanilla custard ice cream.