Steve Kluger - My Most Excellent Year

There are only three great loves in T.C. Keller's life: the Red Sox, his father, and his best friend and unofficial "brother," Augie. But ninth grade is the year when he falls head-over-cleats in love with Ale Perez. She's pretty, sassy, smart, and a great dancer. Ale is so busy playing hard to get that she doesn't realize that she just might be falling head-over-tap shoes for T.C.'s Boston accent, too. Meanwhile, T.C.'s best friend, Augie, is falling in love as well, but with a boy? It may not be so clear to him; but to the rest of his family and friends, it's totally obvious that Augie, who loves musicals and old school screen sirens such as Judy Garland, is head-over-heels in love with Andy Wexler.
Told in alternating perspectives, this is the story of their most excellent year, where these three friends discover themselves, love, and that a little magic and Mary Poppins can go a long way.

Comment: Somehow I saw myself really enjoying this author's writing style and graphic content which includes notes, post it notes and other means of conveying information about the plot without having characters really exchanging a dialogue. Since the previous books were good enough for me, I was quite curious about this one too and I'm very glad I read it.

In this story we follow the diary entries, emails, text messages and other ways of having information being known of three teenagers, TC, Alejandra and Augie. The books focuses mostly on their 9th grade which, according to them, was the greatest year of their lives - while they write, they are on the 11th grade.

Throughout all the communication ways included, we get to know about who they are, who their families are and why the three of them have a very close bond. The plot moves forward in time while we move from one protagonist's entries to the other, alternatively, until the end and the journey is both sweet and poignant.

I won't be able to write much about this that I haven't already conveyed in the lines above. I really liked this story's style and the author's voice is very much obvious for those who have read other things by him.

This notion of letting the reader grasp meaning and sometimes emotions through secondary messages is not original but it's different enough to make it addictive. Most of the plot is given to us by diary entries, whish are longer and more detailed and focus on things which have happened or that the protagonist will face soon. This is a method that should put the protagonists at a good distance from the reader but since all are so special, this never happens.

There are three protagonists:

TC, whose mother died while he was little so he writes his diary for her and we get to know about his feelings and his father and his unawareness of himself, of how others see him. TC is a great guy, cares about his friends and is trying to convince Alejandra to be his girlfriend.

Alejandra is the daughter of an ambassador, there are expectations about what she will do but her dream is to be a performer, both in dance and musical theater. She doesn't think TC is good boyfriend material but with time she starts changing her mind.

Augie is a boy whose friendship with TC made them brothers for life and they will try their best to help another little boy see his dream come true as well. He is gay, eventually falls for a boy in their class but it seems everyone realizes this before he does.

The complexity of the relationship between these three and how they interact is the best part of the novel. I can't describe how good it felt to read about them and to know little details that help complete the big picture without it being too obvious. We get to know all that matters about them as the pages go by and I had a great time doing this.

This is a great story about discovering what we are able to do if we believe in our dreams. A little too sugary, yes, but emotional too.

If there is a flaw for me is how unrealistic some scenes and situations were portrayed. Some things just can't be as believable as they are described. I understand the drive to write about the greatness of some aspects but it felt a little too incredible and the protagonists' faults and problems weren't as dealt with as they should for this to appear more believable. Still, it was a good story and I couldn't put the book down.

Although it's not a perfect book, for me it worked perfectly in this moment I read it. Sometimes it's good to read about good people and believe in the magic of possibilities.

Grade: 9/10

Steve Kluger - Changing Pitches

Scotty Mackay is an American League pitcher who, at thirty-six, has to hit the comeback trail to save his all-star career, All goes well until he gets teamed up with a young catcher he detests: pretty boy Jason Cornell. Jason has lots of teeth, poses for underwear ads, and has blue eyes ... and Scotty's favorite color is blue. By August, Scotty's got a major-league problem on his hands. 

Comment: I had my eye on this book for a long time, mostly since I've read other books by the author and having enjoyed them.

This, however, wasn't as well done in my opinion, perhaps because it was the first published by the author and some content feels wrongly dealt with.

In this book we have Scott McKay's story, he is a 36 year old baseball player who is quickly approaching the end of his career. Scotty feels his arm isn't strong anymore, his technique isn't the best anymore but suddenly he seems to have an increase in his performance and his team starts to climb the ladder to first place. In the meantime, a new player comes to the team to replace an injured one. Scott feels a connection with that player even though he claims to hate him prior to knowing him. But as time and games go by, everything seems to be going well, and Scott sees himself being in love with a man, something he never thought about. How can Scott deal with all the pressure issues in his life and still maintain his sanity?

This story is readable as one comes to expect from the author, there's an epistolary feel to the plot, since most of the information comes as a diary notation or bulletins on the team's main board or similar things. This is mostly fun because the narrative doesn't get boring nor heavy to go through but it's also a game in reading between the lines when he need to sort of "guess" what the purpose of some things actually is.

Scott is a sweet and funny guy and I liked knowing him and how he thought about things. He is in a stressful situation since he knows his performances as a professional player aren't what they used to be but he still tries to help and be important for the team. He also has this love/hate idea of a new player, Jason, that comes to his team but he realizes he just can't help but enjoying being in his company and the two seem to be a good match both during the games and as simply friends.

All the character interactions and the hows felt very cute and it was fun to read about the guys, about their tastes and ideas, about how they saw the game and so on.

However, this book, despite its fun narrative and situations provided two issues for me, personally, namely one that I think I need to explain a bit why.

First, the less complicated issue was the baseball content. I have no idea about this game, it's not something we have in my country so I know no rules, and the only thing I could talk about it is from what I've seen in movies. While I wasn't as bothered, this is clearly a story about baseball players and I commend the author for the precise notions about it but...ehh, not easy for those who have no concept of the game.

As for the biggest issue for me here...

Spoilers ahead!!

This book is focused on Scotty and his life, how he sees baseball and, apparently, his attraction and love for a fellow player. Scotty is never characterized as a gay man, but he is thinking about his friend/colleague that way. He is also living with his girlfriend, someone we can understand he loves too and that has shared a lot with. Scotty even finds professional help to process the new feelings he has and why. At this point I wasn't sure about the path the story would take but it felt Scotty was probably gay and didn't know who to tell that to his girlfriend or admit it to his friend Jason.

I can only speculate on the real aim of this novel, is this a coming out story, is the gay approach just a step for something else, who knows. 

The reality, however, is that although Scotty is in love with Jason and eventually bravely tells him that, they remain friends - that is what one can understand  - Jason accepts Scotty's feelings but he is committed to someone else so no physical relationship between them. And Scott, after several psychological sessions, comes to realize he just didn't think he would be able to take the step to propose to his girlfriend but when he does, everything in his life makes sense, including the fact he transferred his fear of marriage to the love he felt with someone "safer", alike him, a guy like Jason.

Isn't this weird? I can understand the reasoning but it's quite disappointing to have a situation get interesting, exciting to see develop to have the explanation it was just a "misunderstanding" after all. Therefore, is Scotty gay or not and if not the explanations for everything feel ridiculous.

This book was originally published in 1984, so maybe the end is explained because of that. But I still feel it wasn't done right, or fair to the complexity of the whole situation.

Nevertheless, I still want to read the other book by the author I haven't tried yet.

Grade: 7/10

Steve Kluger - Last Days of Summer

A charming, touching and funny novel of the Forties in which a young boy finds an unusual -- and unwilling -- role model.In 1940, 12-year-old Joey Margolis decides to focus his attention on one person: Charlie Banks, the talented young third baseman for the New York Giants. Joey is a wiseguy kid, and pretends to be dying so Charlie will come and visit him. At first the player wants nothing to do with the kid, who's a liar and a fake, but after time he's tricked, cajoled and charmed into being what he never wanted to be: a role model for another human being who needs him. 

Comment: I got this book last year because I've read something else by the author and I liked it. I was curious to read more by the author and the blurb to this book seemed something I'd enjoy as well. This month, I finally started it and it was worth the wait fr sure.

In this book we meet Joey Margolis, a 12 year old Jewish boy who's constantly bullied and beaten at school. In an attempt to make his bullies leave him alone he makes up a friendship with New York Giants baseball player Charlie Banks. To do so, Joey writes Charlie pretending to be sick but he does is to often, Charlie catches on and after some letter exchanging, they no longer deny they like each other and become friends. But life goes on and while Charlie helps Joey with key moments of his young life, can a friendship survive it all?

This was a great story, not perfect, often mentioned things I'm not familiar with - which can be a plus for veracity reasons but not so much for all reader's understanding - but overall, the focus is definitely the friendship young Joey and adult Charlie develop. It starts very reluctantly but with time we get to realize Joey sees in Charlie someone who can help him after his own father dismisses him and doesn't care, and Charlie becomes a sort of friend/father figure and everyone gets richer because of the group of people they interact with and know.

I liked this story, especially the graphic text. The novel is told from notes, reports, letters the character exchange, school notes and other means of written communication. The action is set in the 1940s, therefore not as easy as it would be nowadays to keep in touch. But this added interest and an unique eye because we, the reader, have to infer things, we have to read between the lines about the character's motives and personality. Sure, they often discuss personal choices and actions and that helps, but I liked this was not a boring narrative. It was fun to read all the different notes and that actually helped to make the reading easier and faster.

It doesn't mean, however, that this was just laughs. In fact, part of the story was quite heartbreaking because with every moment there's a lesson, there's the notion time is gong away... it's too sad to think what means so much now can become something else in the future... But still, for the most part, this was amazing and the learning both Charlie and Joey do because their lives connected is so much more important.

The author has talent and, so far, his work has been positive to me. I have curiosity in his other books but this one was very emotional in a way I'd not think so when one of the main characters is a kid.

But what truly makes this amazing is all the secondary details we get to follow now that History has happened and we can match what the characters go through with the reality. It jus gives a certain sturdiness to all the elements presented.

I thought this was good and recommend it.

It's not a perfect book, because of the way things are told, some information doesn't seem to be as important or well explained/done but it's things one can overlook.

This is mostly good and easy to read!

Grade: 8/10

Steve Kluger - Almost Like Being in Love

A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart. Flash forward twenty years. Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... 
Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. 
Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love. 

Comment: This book has been on the pile for a long time. Most of them are, but still. I got it because I saw some friends liked it a lot and being myself a fan of m/m romance and epistolary plots, I added the book to the pile. Then time went by....and by....you know, the usual fate of so many books, it got "lost" in the pile but last month I remembered I had it and voilá, this month I decided to finally get to it and it's one of those I feel sorry I didn't pick earlier.

This is Travis' and Craig's story. They meet in senior year at high school and slowly fall in love although they don't understand it at first. When they finally do, it's almost time for them to go separate ways into different colleges. They spend a memorable summer together but distance eventually makes it mark.

20 years pass until Travis realizes he can't fall in love with someone else - despite his trying - because he still loves Craig. Then Travis decides to go after Craig and win him back and get his HEA at last. But will Craig be willing - and available - when he is found?

I had such a good time reading this story. I tell you, I was in a state of anxiety you can't know if you haven't read this because I really wanted to know how this would end. 

It's difficult to explain certain things about this book without spoilers, even more so why this wasn't a perfect read for me, especially when I thought so right until the last 20 pages or so. Let's just say there's a certain knowledge we are aware of during the book, but the characters aren't. Then when everything happens and the characters act on the new found information, I admit I can't point out why I'm bothered exactly, but I am. I liked there's an HEA but some actions took place for that to happen and in a way, I think I didn't like how that was accomplished. Because things weren't simple to solve. This sounds so mysterious and enigmatic but really, it's all very obvious, but...I'm trying not to spoil the secret that makes this book so intriguing.

The story is told through notes, emails, phone conversations, checklists, thing other characters see and tell, and sometimes from the main characters' notebooks. I love this style of showing a story, we still get an idea of how everyone is and what makes them worthy of having a story to tell, but it's full of imagination and we have to make an effort to read between the lines, I like the challenge. 

The author also shows off his immense knowledge about politics, history, sports and human traits and creates here a very special but well structured novel about falling in love, about honoring and looking for your first love and what it means to hope and to do the right thing.

The romance is very cute. Usually I don't like the "going down the memory lane" plots but in this case, not only by the unique narrative style but mainly because these characters come alive beautifully, I enjoyed seeing their lives, how hey met and started hanging out, there's really an almost sort of magical vibe in the story that drives the reader crazy in trying to know what happens. I know some readers found the story boring and I understand how the way things are told can be a challenge but really, if one tries, this story is fresh and cute and full or irony and comic situations and sweet love...it's very worth the time it takes to read.

I liked this story a lot and it's one of those I'll try to re-read when I can. The main characters are special and wonderful, the secondary characters offer a huge range of possibilities and allow this to be amazing instead of just plain, and apart from my issue with how things were solved at the end, the reading was an absolutely amazing experience, I recommend it. And I'm definitively trying more books by the author.

Grade: 8/10