Scooter

Real quick- A great book. I enjoyed both of Foleys novels and hope he has plans to publish a third soon. Can we expect one Mick? [email protected]

To date I have read all of Mick Foley's books. I have enjoyed each of them. They cover a wide range from children's books and novels, to memoirs. Each book, and this one is no exception, are easy to read and you easily begin to genuinely care for the characters. There is a smooth, almost conversational, tone to the books. Thanks Mick!

I got this book mainly because Mick Foley wrote it and I have a great deal of respect for him due to his wrestling career. At the point I got the book I didn't read alot, and when I did I almost never finished the book. I picked up Scooter and everything changed! It conatins the story of a kid growing up in the South Bronx at the point right before and during its downfall. It told me alot about New York City and some interesting Yankees information. This book really makes you root for the hero and at times it makes you want to jump into that story and help Scooter out! It is very real as well. It deals with how life really is, at first it seems like the story shouldn't be done and after a whiel you realize that life is really like how it is in the book (you really need to know the end to understand what I mean). This is a very good read and also very addicting. I suggest you take a day of two off of work to read it so you can truly focus on it. Scooter is well worth the 20 bucks to buy it, and if you can't afford it, get it from the library!

Mick Foley may not be Frost or Hemmingway or King or Patterson...but Scooter tells a great story. Again, Foley may not show up on any College Literature Course's required reading, but he has a knack for bring sincerity and believe-ability to a story when telling it from the point of view of a confused and angry teenager. He also offers many plot twists and revelations; most- I would bet - would be considered unpredictable by even the best-read fiction collectors. I wasn't pleased-to-death with the ending, but it hardly killed the story. The book had to end 'somewhere', and Foley did a fabulous job of wrapping things up and putting them away. If you like baseball, and can appreciate a story told from a teenager's point of view, you will very much enjoy 'Scooter'.

In 1964 four year old Scooter Reilly grows up in the Bronx, a borough in flux with the working white middle class fleeing to Long Island. His grandpa, a retired firefighter who lives nearby, is around more than his dad, who works a police beat in Harlem. Dad has two interests: beer and the Yankees; ergo Scooter is named for legendary player Phil Rizzuto. In 1969 dad gets drunk over the Mets not his Yanks winning the World Series. He fires his revolver hitting Scooter in the leg. For the rest of his life Scooter will limp. In 1973, dad's partner is murdered. Raging out of control fueled by beer, he hits his daughter Patty; who suffers permanent brain damage. Upset with his father, Scooter breaks his dad's leg. Four years later they relocate to Long Island, but fastball pitcher Ferraggo faces Scooter on the field while bullying Patty off the field; at the same time Feraggo's sister seduces Scooter. Confrontation and reckoning are coming. Though there is a bias as I grew up in the 1960s Bronx (terrific place) and was still there as the Cross Bronx Express (see THE POWER BROKER: ROBERT MOSES AND THE FALL OF NEW YORK by Caro) and the fire line (SEE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BRONX IS BURNING by Mahler) destroyed the middle class West Bronx by the 1970s, Mick Foley captures the essence of urban decline. The story line is fabulous when it focuses on Scooter growing up just north of Yankee Stadium (Bronx Deco tenement buildings with classic relief and Dutch stoops). The tale loses some momentum towards the end when teenage Scooter has to confront his demons in Long Island, but remains a terrific historical saga worth reading. Harriet Klausner