Epistolary

Steve Kluger craftily reveals the novel “Last Days of Summer” by sharing actions without consequences. The most recent example of this is when Joey writes a letter to Mrs. Roosevelt about “if his father was president”. We know that Joey was having trouble writing this letter because the author shares Joey’s half-written, discarded rough drafts. And we know that Joey takes a unique approach to the letter because we see the reaction of his teacher and principal. We don’t, however, see the letter until after we learn that his neighbor is a Nazi spy, he had his Bar Mitzvah, and that he has matured in his relationship with Rachel. This is, however, only one of the constant events happening in the novel. The book consists of numerous story lines, all running in between and around each other. This can be attributed to the newspaper clippings that Kluger includes in between letters between characters. World War II and Pearl Harbor occur during the timeline of the book, and the author makes sure that the reader knows the time frame. Adding more intrigue to the book is the relationship between the characters. Through letters between each other we learn more about the characters. Joey writes Charlie, Charlie writes Hazel, Hazel writes Charlie, Stuke writes Joey, Stephen T. Early writes Joey, Carrie writes Charlie, and so on. In essence we are watching the world through the eyes of 6 characters. Then, of course, there are also the report cards, where we see that Joey does excellent in school in all things unrelated to behavior. Besides providing humor to the book, the report cards also share with us the nature of Joey: an unruly, smart kid who does what he wants. But we also see the maturity in Joey through the letters between characters discussing his relationship with Charlie, who becomes a father figure for the needy boy. Clearly a unique approach to authoring a book, Steve Kluger is able to transcend the fundamentals of writing through his epistolary penmanship.