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: It was great!
Review: I loved this book! It was filled with humor and a great story told mostly through letters. If you love baseball and the classic stories behind it, you'll absolutely love this book, as it is among the best of baseball stories (right up there with "Field of Dreams"). I highly recommend this book and hope that you will all love it as much as I do!
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Summary: I laughed out loud, even through the tears.
Review: I loved this book! I can't stop telling people about it. I want all my "reader" friends to hurry up and read it, just so we can laugh together. I've even picked it for my selection in the reading group I belong to. It's a story of a young, Jewish boy (Joey Margolis)growing up in the early forties, trying to fill the emptyness left by his absent father. He does this by writing to a rookie, baseball sensation named Charlie Banks, begging for a radio dedication homerun, under the guise of being a terminally ill child. The entire story told in letters, news clippings, report cards and notes, captivated me from the first page until the last.The strength, resillence, ingenuity and humor of young Joey, through all of his disappointments absolutely broke this mother's heart, while I'm cheering him on every step of the way. I laughed out loud so often, my family made me read in another room! And Charlie Banks, recovering from his own hidden sorrows, was drawn into a correspondence, then a relationship, kicking and screaming all the way. His gruff, wise-crackin',but good hearted advice,was just what Joey needed. I keep reading little bits to my friends, and now by the time I get my copy back, I'll be ready to read it again!
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly touching
Review: I loved this book, it is my new favorite, and this is a genre I would normally not go near with a ten foot pole. This is the first book to have me laughing and crying both at the same time. It is a delightful emotional journey that I would heartily recommend to everyone.
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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!
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 Story You Won't Forget...
Review: In Brooklyn, 1940, a young twelve-year-old boy is coming of age in a world where he doesn't belong. His wealthy father has recently divorced his mother, leaving her all but broke, and she is forced to move herself and her son to an Italian dominated part of Brooklyn, leaving him the only Jew in the area. As the incidents of abuse from other boys in the neighborhood mount, young Joey writes to ball player Charlie Banks on the Giants' baseball team, asking for him to hit a home run and say, preferably on the radio, that it was for him. What ensues is one of the most touching, moving stories I have read in many years.
In the Last Days of Summer, Author Steve Kluger weaves an unlikely tale of a young boy who has a much larger impact on the world at large than he can possibly understand, and Kluger does so through a technique of letting the reader into the boy's life through his letters and newspaper clippings. What at first might seem like a clunky or silly gimmick turns into a warm, unusually involved reading experience. By the end of the book, the reader is left feeling as though all of the characters are personal friends, and are far more real than mere letters on a page.
Kluger has obviously done his homework, referencing a massive series of facts and statistics running the gambit from Hitler's invasions of European nations to baseball scores, to national politics in the early 1940's. The main character, Joey Margolis, corresponds with people ranging from Hollywood personalities to community leaders, and even FDR himself.
Speaking as a writer, I can offer no higher praise for a fellow author's work than to say his characters were so believable and well envisioned that I feel as though I could pass them on the street or pick up the phone and dial their numbers. Through his technique of allowing the reader to peer over the shoulders of the characters and read their correspondence, Kluger has given an unusual window into their hearts and minds. In the context of the story, it is far more powerful than any prose could be.
Don't pass this book by. It will stay with you, in your heart and in your mind, for many years to come, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Andrew Barriger, Author of Finding Faith
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Summary: Truly a classic, original book
Review: Last Days of Summer is one you could finish soon because you don't put it down (sorry about that cliche). The author Steve Kluger's writing can take you back to the 1930's New York.
The story involves a young Jewish kid named Joey who lives in New York during the 1930's and on. He's a streetsmart kid who's precocious and smart-talking. The first part is hilarious as he warns the president about Hitler's plan to invade various countries, but of course he's disbelieved. Joey is a very likable kid, he's got a dirty mind sometimes, especially how he treats his school crush, though eventually he's sweet to her. His best friends a Japanese-American boy whom he plays games with. Joey is a baseball nut, loves to play,watch,talk about it. His favorite player's a young star named Charles Banks, also a smart-talking New Yorker. Though they first flame each other in the mail, they eventually become good friends. The second half of the book is much more emotional. Charles is drafted into the war, Joey's Japanese friend is interned, and Joey is generally forced to grow up. Though the end is predicable, it is nonetheless sad, and touching. The book is written in a series of letters and other written materials, making the format an intriguing read. The book is generally a humorous one, until the end, though it still maintains that charm. Recommended to Jews/non-Jews alike.
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: 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.
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