Also, through Charlie and Joey we glimpse the history of the times between 19 and slowly experience how things change and develop throughout the country. Last Days of Summer accurately details some incredible New York baseball history (Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Giants) and other teams as well, but baseball doesn't overwhelm the book. Through letters, telegrams, report cards, tickets and other means of communication, this beautiful story of friendship and love unfolds as the characters are revealed.
Kluger again uses his favored epistolary style to reveal Joey and Charlie's improbable story of friendship. However, once Joey chooses Charlie he doesn't stand a chance, no matter his reluctance to accept that role. An uneducated young man who doesn't necessarily make the best first impression, Charlie doesn't seem to be the best choice for hero worship. His imagination, determination and persistence become legendary throughout the story. Charlie is a baseball player through and through. Joey is a smart-mouthed, needy, brilliant little boy who goes to great lengths to get what he wants. He chooses a reluctant Charlie Banks, the new 3rd Baseman for the New York Giants baseball team.
Lacking a father figure in his life, Joey is desperately looking for someone to take that place.
He is a 12 year old Jewish boy who having recently moved from Manhattan with his mother and aunt becomes the neighborhood bullies' punching bag. Kluger takes us to Brooklyn, New York in 1940 to tell us Joey Margolis' story. I don't think I expected to be caught up in the story or the characters in the same way. Then again, this strange, needy kid might be exactly what Banks needs.I loved the first book I read by Steve Kluger, Almost Like Being in Love, and yet Last Days of Summer still managed to surprise me. But Joey's chosen champion doesn't exactly welcome the extreme attention of a persistent young fan with an overactive imagination. A boy looking for a hero, Joey decides to latch on to Charlie Banks, the all-star third baseman for the New York Giants. Last Days of Summer is the story of Joey Margolis, neighborhood punching bag, growing up goofy and mostly fatherless in Brooklyn in the early 1940s. I prefer to think of it as Fiction with Historical elements and think it deserves to be widely read. The genre is a bit of a mixed bag, I've seen it tagged as YA, Literary Fiction, Sports Fiction, World War II, Men's Fiction, and well. However, after reading Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, I decided that since a book set in World War II qualifies by KMont's rules, this was going to be my review for this Challenge. I planned to read and review a historical romance for my first Year of the Historical Challenge review.
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