I've read this book at least 'more than' 15 times. I don't know where I got it, as a birthday gift, I believe, but wherever, I took to it as I have to few books in my life. I was unathletic as a kid, though not as smart as the fictional Herbie, so that helps. The book is dated, though not in a bad way, one can say it just increased its attractiveness as a historic reference. Hard to say how much Mr. Wouk is recalling his own...
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Readers of Herman Wouk are readily familiar with his incredible ability to capture the essence of humanity in the development of his characters. Not since my second reading of Huckleberry Finn have I looked at life through the eyes of a young boy. While reading "City Boy", I was Herbie. Wouk is able to create images of Herbie's feelings of joy, despondance, jealousy, puppy love, and more, that draw the reader into a world...
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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,"...
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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...
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What a delight to see so many others who love Herbie too! I bought this book through the Scholastic Bookclub many years ago and have read it to tatters. Lovesick Herbie and his Walter Mitty-ish fantasies come to life with such grace and humor! Clever Sam and his antics still make me laugh out loud. A book to savor.
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