Last Days of Summer Updated Ed: A Novel

By Steve Kluger

A contemporary American classic—a poignant and hilarious tale of baseball, hero worship, eccentric behavior, and unlikely friendship

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. A boy looking for a hero, Joey decides to latch on to Charlie Banks, the all-star third basemen for the New York Giants. But Joey's chosen champion doesn't exactly welcome the extreme attention of a persistent young fan with an overactive imagination. Then again, this strange, needy kid might be exactly what Banks needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Aug 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780062042675

Steve Kluger

Steve Kluger has written extensively on subjects as far-ranging as World War II, rock 'n' roll, and the Titanic, and as close to the heart as baseball and the Boston Red Sox. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

Reviews for Last Days of Summer Updated Ed

[tommysalami_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. Developing characters through letters isn't the easiest thing, and Kluger gives us three beauties. A young boy writes to a baseball player as he comes of age, and they form an unlikely friendship. All the more unlikely because the kid opens up by calling him "an ass hole."
I still can't write that as one word without thinking of this book. It's funny, touching, and an astonishingly quick read that you won't want to end.

[presto_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Joey, a twelve year old Jewish boy is beaten up for (falsely) claiming to be the friend of famous baseball player Charles Banks, so in attempt to prove his case he writes a pleading letter to the baseball player, and not just one. What follows is a correspondence in which Joey adds lie upon lie, and in which Charles repeatedly tells him where to get off. But gradually the tone of the communications changes, and what develops is a close and charming relationship.The story is told entirely through the letters between Joey and Charles, along with other letters from Joey's best friend and a others, transcripts of interviews between Joey and his doctor, and clips from newspapers and other printed ephemera. I put off reading this book for some time for the page presentation is a bit brash, and I must admit when I did start reading it I found it a little dispassionate, but not for long. Very soon one warms to Joey, a loud-mouth? possibly; precocious? definitely; resourceful and inventive? most certainly; but behind it all is a heart of gold. This is born out by the effect he has on the young baseball player, gradually bringing his otherwise hidden good heartedness and turning Charles into the father Joey lacked, and a true hero.The Last Days of Summer is a remarkable book, sentimental and moving, extremely funny and yet heartbreaking, once I got going with I could not put it down and read it in just one sitting. A most original book, and one of the funniest I have read in a long time.

[browner56 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is 1940 and Joey Margolis is a precocious 12 year-old living in Brooklyn with his mother and his aunt, where he serves as a punching bag for the other kids in the neighborhood. Abandoned by his father, he is desperately in need of a strong male presence in his life. Improbably, Joey starts an on-going exchange of letters with Charlie Banks, a star third baseman for the New York Giants baseball team. Those letters will ultimately change and enrich both their lives.The “Last Days of Summer” is basically an epistolary novel that chronicles the extent of that correspondence, interspersed with news clippings of the myriad events from that memorable time. This is a highly satisfying book that is at once charming, funny, and deeply affecting. The story itself, which uses baseball as a backdrop to a considerable extent, is really better viewed as a coming-of-age story. It is also a highly implausible tale, but the characters are so well drawn and appealing that it is easy to overlook that fact when you are reading it. I enjoyed this novel quite a bit and was more than a little sorry to see it end.

[chrisod_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Written as though you are flipping through 12 year old Joey's scrapbook, this novel is brilliantly delivered primarily as a series of letters between Joey, a 12 year old Jewish kid with a deadbeat dad, who is growing up in a tough Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn circa 1941, and his favorite baseball player, Charlie Banks, the rookie third baseman for the New York Giants. LOL funny at times, poignant when Charlie enlists after Pearl Harbor, and a tearjerker at the end, I absolutely loved this book. It's a fun baseball story, and a heartfelt growing up story for both the kid and the adult.

[yourotherleft_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Told entirely in letters, notes, and news clippings, Last Days of Summer is the story of Joey Margolis and Charlie Banks. In 1941, 12 year old Joey is a Jewish kid living in a part of Brooklyn where Jewish kids, particularly ones with mouths as big as Joey's, aren't treated too well. Charlie Banks is the hot-headed up and coming third baseman for the New York Giants, and he'd just as soon slug a guy for calling him a name on the basepaths as he would hit a long ball over the wall. Joey is a smart-alecky kid with uncanny persistence and a knack for writing letters to famous people that actually elicit replies, like his correspondence with President Roosevelt and his staff, for example. It's no shocker, then, that when Joey figures that Charlie Banks might well be the solution to his problem with the neighborhood bullies, Charlie hardly has a chance of resisting. Soon the two are sniping back at each other in letters. It's not long, though, until their real struggles start to work their way into the letters even if they are buried in snark, fibs, and tough guy-isms. Soon, Charlie is proving himself a worthy stand-in for Joey's father, a philandering factory owner with no time for anybody but himself and his new wife, and Joey is calling his hot-tempered hero out on his unsportsmanlike conduct.Last Days of Summer is, perhaps, a profoundly implausible story, but that small fact never crosses your mind while you're reading it. Kluger gives each of his two main characters such vivid, believable voices that you can't help coming to care about each of them quickly. Only using letters, Kluger fleshes out an entire cast of characters that include Charlie's lounge singer girlfriend, Hazel MacKay, arch enemy of Ethel Merman; Joey's mother and his aunt, a Jewish stereotype of sorts who's always saying that if things go wrong "let it be on your head;" Joey's upstairs neighbor Craig Nakamura, his partner in entrepreneurial pursuits and tracking the movements of old Mrs. Aubaugh the "German spy" with the wooden leg; Charlie's teammate Stuke, famous for making the first unassisted triple play in 21 years; not to mention Joey's Rabbi, a patient if humorless man who gets more than he bargained for when the distinctly un-Jewish Charlie steps in for Joey's dad at Joey's Bar Mitzvah. Given all this, it's not surprising that Last Days of Summer is laugh out loud hilarious to the point that you might embarrass yourself while giggling away during lunch break while you're at a table by yourself. What is surprising, though, is the way these characters work their way into your heart while you're busy trying not to laugh too loudly in public, how the story can be heartwarming without ever crossing the line into cheesy, and how, even when you guess the ending coming from a hundred pages off, it still takes you by surprise and makes you cry like a baby. I absolutely loved this story of a pair of unlikely buddies who needed each other more than they could have guessed and of two boys who ultimately teach each other how to be men.

[indygo88 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. I loved the format, I loved the fact that it was about baseball, and I loved the dynamic between the two main characters. This one will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will make you laugh so hard that you WILL cry. I'm off to add more Steve Kluger titles to my wishlist!

[cailin_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite books, reading The Last Days of Summer for the second time it did not disappoint. The book is an epistolary novel and follows the relationship between Charlie Banks 3rd baseman for the NY Giants and Joseph Margolis, a 12 year old kid without a father who is the target of neighborhood bullies. The book is funny, charming and sad and leaves you with the wish that Charlie Banks was real.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Gotta love Joey Margolis. He writes letters to his baseball heroes, spouting atrocious lies in a desperate attempt to go on the road with these guys. And somehow it works for him.In a totally different way than Crossed Wires, this is a nice summer read.

[5eva5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This isn't the deepest work of art or in any way an accurate description of historic events, but it is very, very funny. The mix of letters and report cards and newspaper clippings, etc. is very cleverly done and the juxtaposition of some story-lines will make you laugh out loud. A lot. As long as you're not expecting a Pulitzer-type novel, I'd recommend this as a great summer read. It does get a bit maudlin at times and the celebrity bits are sometimes a bit too fantastic, but that's easily outweighed by the various letter exchanges between completely unlikely characters - Charlie getting Bar Mitzvah lessons from "Rabby" Lieberman is a definite highlight!

[sacrain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

How much did I love this book? Enough to BUY six copies as gifts for friends, relatives, and friends of friends. I can't think of any age or gender that wouldn't love this book. It's funny, earnest, poignant and sweet. I love this book so much I might read it again. It's a quick read and made me nostalgic for the childhood I never had....

[laceym19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. It was an incredibly easy read, but the story line was great, even though it has been done time and again. The characters were likable and fun, i found myself not wanting to put the book down.... I just wanted to see what Joey would do or say next! I would reccomend this book to anyone and everyone.

[axisgrid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't like sports. I don't really understand sports. In fact, if sports were my last hope for survival on a wasting planet, I would have to just give up and die with the rest of the athletically-challenged population. So why I picked up a book centered around baseball (in my opinion the second-most boring sport to golf) is beyond me, but it turned out to be a pretty good purchase.It's not a new concept - fatherless, smart-aleck boy gains begrudging mentor who changes his life forever - but the characters are fresh and relatable. Joey Margolis is a mouthy Jewish kid growing up in Brooklyn. After one too many beatings from the neighborhood bullies, he claims NY Giants' 3rd baseman Charles Banks is his best friend. When he's pressured for proof, Joey writes to Banks to request a home run, starting a flurry of funny, emotionally authentic letters. The letter exchange - peppered by miscellaneous newspaper articles, report cards and psychiatrist's transcripts - continues over a period of seven years, chronicling Joey and Banks' tumultuous but fiercely devoted friendship. The unlikely pair crack jokes, poke fun, threaten, boss, cajole, confide, advise and offer support to one another as the two face extended tours, Bar Mitzvahs, first girlfriends, last girlfriends and absentee fathers. It is not only Joey's coming of age that is revealed in their notes, but Banks' too. Yeah, there's some baseball talk, but although the sport is what brings the characters together, it's still secondary to the sincere, funny, totally believable relationship between a boy and his reluctant hero.

[gayldashersmith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed these memorable characters. It felt familiar because so much has been done before...the orphan looking for a father, the crusty ballplayer melting in the hands of a needy child, tales of world war II, Brooklyn's fascination with baseball. Yet somehow, Kluger made it feel fresh. The writing style has been done before but not as well.