Cheap City Boy (Book) (Herman Wouk) Price

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Customer Reviews of City Boy

A truly charming and wonderful book for readers of all ages
I first encountered Herman Wouk through The Winds of War and War and Remembrance in the late 1970s. These started me on an odyssey through all of his books. The hardest one to find was City Boy, but the effort to find it was certainly worthwhile! I have read this book at least a dozen times, have worn through two copies and am looking for my third. I have read so much of it out loud to my husband and kids that they all know the story as well as I do. Herbie Bookbinder is a character that rings so true, you instantly identify with him, whether or not you are a boy, or Jewish, or from New York City, or lived your childhood in the 1920s. I am none of those things, but I love Herbie just the same. His feelings, experiences, self-doubts, triumphs, family troubles and foibles strike a chord in us all. If you haven't read this one, give it a try! You won't be able to put it down.

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Perhaps the funniest book I have ever read
This is one of those books which would be ruined were it translated to film. There really is no plot, just a lot of situations, yet Herman Wouk's descriptions of people and places, and the "dialogue" which takes place not only in words but in the imaginative Herbie's mind, are so hilarious that I can read this book annually (as I have since the 1960s) and laugh aloud each time.

Herbie is, to borrow Wouk's words, a "facile fictioniser," whose elaborate tales become reality in his mind as he ponders or shares them. Though many of Wouk's "side comments" show sophistication, everyone is actually presented according to Herbie's point of view, with evil in this world "traced mainly to adults or Lennie Krieger." This is actually far more accurate a depiction of an adolescent's mind (as also offered in the Tom Sawyer to whom Herbie is often and well compared) than one would see today. Those who would find the adult characters to be unbalanced in presentation must recall that Herbie would see only their main influence on him.

Though Herbie's crush on Lucille Glass is the source of much of the far-fetched action in this novel, this is not actually a romantic book. The reader, who can see through Lucille all too well, can enjoy Herbie's glorified version of her. One regular theme in this book, and one very true, is that the highly intelligent Herbie is so lost in dreams and ideals that those far less intellectually gifted (Cliff, Elmer Bean come to mind) actually have a far deeper grasp of the situations.

Though this is not a children's book, it certainly is suited for kids' reading. I would caution anyone who passes it on to a youngster not to ruin the book's delight by using it for "a talk" or to explain differences between "then and now." Herbie's version of life, entirely his own self-centred and humorous creation, should not be muddied by Mrs Bookbinder's lack of career opportunities; whether he sees the girls only in relation to his own dreams (what 11-year-old would not?); or whether his bizarre midnight ride violated safety rules. (No parts of this plot are intended to be taken this seriously.) And anyone, in the context, would see Herbie's having to deal only with a spanking, not years behind bars, when he is... beyond naughty as a welcome substitute. The continuing theme in the book is that Herbie, like all children, never considers consequences for any action, and gets the message that such can exist - don't spoil the impact with a discussion of 1990s attitudes towards corporal punishment.

The characters are memorable, the camp settings a happy fiction of songs, shows, and remarkable freedom, and the school scenes enough to make anyone laugh in recognition. I, who am not a fan of Herman Wouk, count this as the funniest book on any of my many shelves.

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Immensely entertaining but poignant book
At a loss for something to read, I picked this book at random - and then read it in three days flat! So nearly one of the best books I have read, it's full of true-to-life characters, plenty of touching moments and a lot of laugh-out-loud ones too.

The main character is obviously Herbie Bookbinder, an eleven year old growing up in the Bronx in the early 20th century. He is a fat but very intelligent boy, so intelligent he skips a year in school. However his main flaw in the book is that he falls hopelessly in love with a girl, Lucille Glass, a love so intense that he is led to do some truly extraordinary things. The intensely passionate feelings he has for this girl are to me what makes the character of Herbie so real.

The main event of the book is Herbie, his cousin Cliff, his arch-enemy Lennie and Lucille (among others) going to a summer camp, Camp Manitou. This turns out to be a fairly prison-like establishment, but dissent is kept to a minimum by shrewd calculation on the part of the camp owner, Mr. Gauss.

With Mr. Gauss, Herman Wouk has made into a person all those unpleasant characteristics we encounter in everyday life - greed, cunning, false charm and many more. He feeds the children ice cream on the first night, to dull their unhappiness at the dismal nature of the camp, and when the camp is defeated at games with another camp, Mr. Gauss manages, somehow, to inculcate a feeling that in fact Manitou won a great victory. As the final outrage Mr. Gauss effectively steals money from the naive Herbie.

The climax of the book comes with the confession of Herbie stealing from his father. It is very noticeable that the book gets a lot more serious towards the end, but it is never overly serious, and the warmth of it still shines through.

There are a lot of extremely funny moments, mostly involving a horse by the name of Clever Sam, and Wouk's dry humour at these points really had me laughing out loud.

The only thing that spoiled the book for me was the very end. Here it seems that Herbie and Lucille are finally going to realise their love for each other and perhaps share a truly romantic moment which has eluded them for so long - but instead the book ends with an extremely ambiguous encounter with an older boy whom Lucille seems to like. Even though this ending was obviously meant to be ambiguous in this way, I found it unsatisfying given all that Herbie and Lucille have gone through before. I really wanted to know for sure if they would ever get together.

Still, if anything this shows what real and sympathetic characters Wouk has created, and this small point did not seriously affect my view of the book as a whole. It is a thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing read, and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone!