blog for last days of summer

Brian Gramman
In Last Days of Summer, the story of Joey Margolis and his friend Charlie Banks is told through an epistolary style. We find out about the two characters and their friends and family through letters between the two, press clippings of Charlie’s baseball games, Joey’s report cards, and other media. This creates a whole different feel from other books that I have read because of the indirect access to the information presented. The usual format of a book would give me the information through a narrator telling me a straight story through his perspective. That’s what makes this book so special is the delivery of the information. I feel like I’m eavesdropping on Charlie and Joey’s conversations, almost like a Facebook creeper. This has drawn me deeper into the story and has made me read deeper into what each character is discussing in their letters. For example, in every report card Joey receives, we can find out a lot of information about several characters. We find out what Joey is like at school, we find out how Mrs. Hicks, Joey’s teacher, feels about her most troublesome pupil, and we find out a lot about Joey’s mom and aunt and that they are a lot like him. For each report card response, they make a snarky comment about how his grades are good and not to worry about his issues with obedience. This series of events would have taken much longer to explain using the standard format of book writing and it would have been a much less effective message. Another example of letters communicating a more effective message is the letter that Steven Early, the Press Secretary of the White House. The way Early talks to Joey, wishing his mother and aunt well, proves that he and Joey have had quite a bit of previous communication in the same manner of Joey giving advice to FDR on pressing current events issues. This sheds light on the interest in current affairs that Joey ahs without going into a long drawn-out story that is a strong possibility in any other format of a book. Because of this special style of writing, my understanding of these characters has been enhanced dramatically as well as my interest in the rest of the novel. The huge amount of dialogue in this book draws the reader in more than a straight explanation of what is going on, and thus pushes more readers to finish the entire book and find out what happens at the end. This makes this book a perfect read for high schools looking to show their students the advantages of reading and writing books in multiple styles.