Last Days of Summer

Last Days of Summer

by Steve Kluger

This epistolary novel about 12-year-old Joey from Brooklyn who is looking for a father-figure was a joy to read. Joey is open about his disdain and at the same time his admiration for third baseman Charlie Banks of the New York Giants.

Through a series of determined and hilariously annoying letters to the baseball player, Charlie at first responds in kind, then to his surprise softens and eventually befriends Joey. Throughout, the road to their friendship is examined by Joey's psychologist.

The book is a series of letters and notes to and from Joey and Charlie, Charlie's girlfriend, Charlie's baseball friends, Joey's teachers, his psychologist, and his best friend, etc. As Joey plans his angle of approach to Charlie, his persistence in the relationship is laugh-out-loud. He becomes even more lovable the harder he tries - even when he tries to join the Army at age 13 - just to be with Charlie.

Last Days of Summer will have you laughing, crying, and wishing for the glamorous and innocent age of the 1940s before the war.