Rating: 
Summary: Nostalgic, bittersweet...just wonderful. Read it!
Review: This is one of those books that will have you thinking about its characters long after you've finished reading it. Kathryn and Christy became so real to me, their friendship so alive and dynamic, that it's hard for me to believe they didn't really exisit.The unlikely friendship forged between Christy, a 14 year old coming of age during a hot Baltimore summer and Kathryn, a beautiful 23 year old stricken with polio in her teens, is so poignantly rendered. The characters are so complete! Their exchanges are witty and wonderful. Okay, I'm gushing. But this book affected me pretty deeply. It's rare to read a book that makes you laugh, cry and ponder the nature and the mystery of human relationships. I wish there could be a sequel that follows Christy throughout his adult life (there is a very brief epilogue dealing with this, but it was too brief for me). The relationship between Christy and his family (particularly his father) is also an important part of the story--how his father's actions shape Christy's perceptions of the world, how Christy grows to understand a bit better the complexities of adulthood. There is also some wonderful interaction between Christy and his sister Sue after she is raped by the neighborhood good guy. Maybe some people will find this book too tame or lacking in action. But to me, it was a wonderful "slice of life" kind of novel about how what appears to be an ordinary summer can actually turn into extaoridinary, life-altering experience.
| 
