Pepnnıiec’s k
book
pick
Walk-off homer
Pennie Clark Ianniciello
Costco Book Buyer
I TRY TO REFRAIN from
using this space to gush
(at least not too much), but
this month’s Book Pick,
Steve Kluger’s Last Days of
Summer, has earned it.
I loved this book. It
made me laugh and cry
with its honest portrayal of
friendship. Spanning 1936
to 1942, Kluger tells the
story of 12-year-old Joey
Margolis’ relationship with
baseball all-star Charlie
Banks. The story unfolds
through letters, news
clips, therapy sessions and
even report cards.
Joey, too smart for his
own good, and Charlie,
who ends up liking the
precocious boy despite
himself, make for the
most endearing protagonists I’ve encountered in a
long time. You can take
my word for it, but I
encourage everyone to
experience this book on
their own.
Last Days of Summer
is available in most
Costco warehouses and at
costco.com. C
FRANCE FREEMAN
Last Days of Summer
reflects on the game of life
By J. Rentilly
HERE’S THE MAGIC of baseball: In the bottom of to reconcile a tenuous relationship between father
the ninth inning, with a team down two outs and and son. Writing Last Days, which is peppered with
the batter one strike away from references to Guadalcanal, the Green Hornet
the final out, a game can mirac- and major-league baseball, allowed Kluger to
ulously turn around and spring “come full circle” with his volatile father, who
to new life, and everyone—play- died in 1995, before the book was completed.
ers, managers and fans alike—is “He read the first 40 or 50 pages and he
spun into a whole other universe, just loved it,” remembers Kluger. “I told him
where one pitch, one swing, one the whole point of the book was that Joey
run changes everything. Steve was him when he was a kid, and he said, ‘No,
Kluger, author of Last Days of pal, Joey is you when you were a kid.’ And I
Summer and an avid baseball fan realized I had created this perfect hybrid of
with an encyclopedic knowledge my father and myself. It was a perfect resolu-of the game, has lived much of Steve Kluger tion for my father and me.”
his life enjoying triumphant, After the book was published it captured
last-minute comebacks exactly limited attention, but it has built a slow head
like this. of steam over the ensuing seven years. Today, Last
Last Days of Summer itself, a funny, deeply mov- Days has hit an unexpected grand slam, crossing
ing record of the friendship between a young Jewish over to the young adult market and being taught in
boy, Joey Margolis, brimming with moxie but from a more than 100 high schools, according to Diane
broken home, and Charlie Banks, a pugnacious but Burrowes, director of academic and library market-golden-hearted up-and-coming major leaguer dur- ing at HarperCollins. One school district in San
ing World War II, is enjoying just such a late-inning Antonio, Texas, now substitutes Last Days for Mark
turnaround. Originally written in the early 1990s, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn in its curriculum. “When I
the novel took more than six years to see publication. found out about that, I nearly dropped dead,” says
TOM CARSON
“Nobody wanted the book, starting with my Kluger, who was inspired to write via a lifelong cor-agent. It was one rejection after another,” says the respondence with A Wrinkle In Time author
53-year-old Kluger, who lives in Santa Monica, Madeleine L’Engle.“Imean,that’snuts!”
California, and counts pitcher Tom Now awaiting publication of his fourth novel
Seaver and singer Ethel Merman as his later this year, Kluger dedicates much of his time
childhood idols. to organizations such as the American Civil
But Kluger refused to give up on Liberties Union, Human Rights Campaign,
the novel, his second, because of its Lambda Legal Defense and Jewish Big Brothers.
deeplypersonalorigins. Thebookis (Just months after his father’s passing, Kluger
a valentine to the childhood his became a Big Brother to Avi, an 11-year-old base-father never had, and an attempt ball fan and budding musician, an experience the
author describes as “the most rewarding” of his
life.) He also is seriously considering a run for public office in 2006, with his eyes ultimately set on a
bid for Congress.
Signed book
or fax it to (425)
giveaway 313-6718.
No purchase is necessary.
Entries must be received or post-
COSTCO HAS 10 autographed marked by midnight, April 1, 2006.
copies of Steve Kluger’s Last Days Void where prohibited. Employees
of Summer to give a way. of Costco and their families are not
To enter, print your name, mem- eligible. Winners will be notified by
bership number, address and day- mail. One entry per household.
time phone number on a postcard
or letter and send it to: Steve
Kluger, The Costco Connection, P. O.
Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088;
Send your feedback
on this month’s book to:
discussionquestions@costco.com
“I’ve had the opportunity to help shape lives,”
he says, “and it’s been just amazing for me. The way
this book put my father and me at peace, the way the
book has exploded to life so late in the game, the
response it gets from readers and the opportunities
I have to reach out to kids have been so surprising to
me. I don’t think I could have written it this way if
I tried.” C
J. Rentilly is a Los Angeles–based journalist who
writes about film, music and literature for a variety
of national and international publications.
