Review: Last Days of Summer

I'm reviewing a non-YA/non-children's novel? Gasp!

(Adult books? What are those? Who even reads those? Adults? Naaaaah.)

Last Days of Summer is the story of Joey Margolis, a twelve year old Jew in Brooklyn during WWII. It's told in letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, and psych evals, mostly centering around his determination to become friends with Charlie Banks, third baseman for the New York Giants.

Joey and Charlie don't get off to a good start: Joey tries to con Charlie into believing he's got all sorts of illnesses in the hopes that Charlie will dedicate a home run to him. If Charlie does this, we learn, the bullies on his block who beat him up for being a Jew (and his best friend Craig for being Japanese) will stop.

Charlie's no idiot, though, and he tells Joey to piss off. So Joey tries the same scam on Charlie's girlfriend, up-and-coming singer Hazel MacKay.

Works like a charm - at least until Hazel and Joey meet face-to-face.

Though they have a rough start, Joey and Charlie slowly develop a pen-pal relationship once they realize that they're under each other's skin for good. Charlie ends up taking Joey on a ballgame road trip and essentially being a surrogate father to Joey, since his bio dad wants nothing to do with him. He even stands in for Joey's father at Joey's bar mitzvah.

WWII puts a wrench in all of Joey and Charlie's fun, however, once Charlie and his buddy Stuke decide to enlist in the Marines and Craig gets sent to Manzanar. I'm sure you can guess how this ends.

I'm pretty sure I've reread Last Days of Summer at least once a year since I found it in a secondhand book store. It's moving and hilarious in turns, and the format is really engrossing, in my opinion. We don't just see Joey and Charlie's letters, but letters between Hazel and Charlie, Charlie and Joey's family, and Joey and Craig, which fleshes out the story nicely.

I also love seeing all the timely references that get made in this book. FDR plays a sizable role in the novel, as do Ethel Merman, Charles Lindbergh, and World War II itself, of course, and I like seeing the characters' opinions on these people and events. (Hazel's not a huge fan of Ethel, understandably.)

Last Days of Summer might not be a totally life-altering read, but it's good for summer, since that's baseball season and all. It also develops these fictional characters so well that I forget they're not just as real as their setting, which is always a selling point in my mind. Five stars.