Teaser Tuesday[33]: Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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Homework and reading and reviews and watching Youtube videos (Let’s Play’s, mostly) and not getting enough sleep. That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing lately. Ugh…

Here’s what I’m reading right now, which is by the author of one of my all-time favorite books, My Most Excellent Year:

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (or click here, for a newer, updated edition on Amazon [I guess?])

Genre: Adult Contemporary

Publisher: HarperCollins (Avon)

Publish Date: June 1st, 1998

Goodreads Synopsis:

The hilarious and heart-warming story about a down-and-out kid who finds inspiration in his favourite baseball hero. In Brooklyn, 1940, a wisecracking, baseball loving twelve-year-old boy, Joey Margolis, is in desperate need of a hero. His rich father has recently divorced his mother, leaving her all but penniless, and she is forced to move herself and her son to an Italian dominated part of Brooklyn, where he's the only Jew in the area. Constant abuse from other boys in the neighbourhood prompts Joey to send letters to Charlie Banks, an up-and-coming star with the New York Giants, asking for a home run so he can tell everyone that it was for him. Joey uses every trick in the book to get what he wants and the friendship that comes out of their simple correspondence will change them both forever.

This improbable friendship is woven together through letters, postcards, notes, telegrams, newspaper clippings, report cards and ticket stubs, and includes a colourful cast of supporting characters.

o The joys and sorrows growing up will always have an audience and this novel sheds light on all the complexity of those difficult times, with humour and joy.

Excerpts:

Note: This book is told mostly in letters and articles and bits of play-like written dialogue and the like, no actual long narrations (except in the prologue and epilogue). So the three excerpts are from two of the character’s letters; the first excerpt is from Joey, and the other two are from Charlie.

“Oh, yea. One more thing. Last night I fell asleep thinking about the way she smells. Then I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and everything was kind of sticky. Charlie, if a guy falls in love before he can ejaculate, does it count?” (Paperback, pg. 185)

“’In case you haven’t noticed, I spent a lot of time this summer growing up.’

First of all, no you didn’t. And second of all, if you have stopped putting vegetables in her hair such as broccoli and etc., she already knows this.” (Paperback, pg. 185) (Note: the bold is because Charlie is copying what was said in the letter he is responding to, so that he can comment specifically about what was said.)

“Which came first, the chicken or the road? Think about it.” (Paperback, pg. 185) (An extra, just cause I felt like it.)

I already know that I’m going to absolutely love this book. So, what are you reading right now? Is it good so far, or not so much?

Happy Reading!