Steven A. Falco published his first novel last year, a coming-of-age novel - "Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run". Steve Falco's novel is set in 1968 in a hauntingly familiar suburban New Jersey town and a high school populated with characters who not only come alive on the page, but whose names and antics seemed seared in my memory. I thought this novel was absolutely terrific! Falco perfectly captured the time, the mood, the racial tensions, the growing pains and joys and the characters who populated our high school years in the late sixties. His chapter, "The Revolt of the Golgi Bodies", not only brought back vivid memories, I may have hurt myself when I fell on the floor laughing. Falco has written a loving tribute to friendship, hero worship, growing up in turbulent times, sharing wisdom and earning respect. "Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run" is a wonderful read -- the best work of fiction I read last year. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it!

Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run is a tribute to childhood—and the draw of baseball—in the late 1960's.

This book is Literature

Through the seeing voice of TJ, a baseball intoxicated boy in turbulent 1968 New Jersey, author Steven Falco has crafted a panorama of the socially complex experiences of an ethnically mixed group of teenagers.The hi jinks are original and uproarious, the teenage and family relationships delicate and realistic, the baseball stories evocative of many boyhoods, and the societal turmoil of 1968 accurately woven throughout.

Though the novel may lack the allegorical sweep of The catcher in the Rye, the message hits home and the voice of TJ is akin to that of Holden. If Salinger had started the book, he probably would have read it all. he probably would have read it all.

Each chapter calls the reader to keep reading.There are rewards along the way, but the final three chapters, tenderly brush stroked in teenage realism, provide the redemptive and mirthful outcome that one hopes is embedded in all of our memories of growing up. Frank T. Lyman, Jr. PhD

Kirkus Review

Falco’s (Grandpa Gordy’s Greatest World Series Games, 2002) coming-of-age historical novel blends baseball and the social upheaval of the 1960s. New Jersey teenager T.J. plays shortstop on the high school baseball team and is an avid fan of the New York Yankees, particularly Mickey Mantle. However, as the story begins in early 1968, T.J. is reluctant to admit that his hero’s career is coming to an end. T.J., who’s white, hears of the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, and his closest friendship with classmate and fellow ballplayer Jonathan, who’s black, is tested as racial tensions escalate in the community. The boys fight for their spots on the field, test their limits on parent-free trips to games in New York, and learn the limits of sociocultural expectations. The metaphorical role of baseball is evident from the opening pages (“Jonathan said that 1968 was a year when everybody did a lot of respect paying, so he might as well do it for Mick’s playing career”), and Falco writes excellent, detailed scenes of the characters observing and playing the game, which will appeal to fans of good sportswriting. He also does a good job of depicting the boys’ day-to-day relationship (“Jonathan was the king of goofing off, and Frankie was the prince of shooting the breeze”). The book is a bit uneven in its treatment of races, though; one section, for instance, intriguingly describes how Jonathan uses a technique that he calls “blacknosing” to deal with white teachers who are uncomfortable with black pupils, but most observations about race are presented from T.J.’s white-centered perspective (“When Jonathan came over that Saturday afternoon, it must have been the first time a black person other than the garbage man ever walked through our neighborhood”). For the most part, however, this is an emotionally satisfying story of friendship and a well-written sports tale.

A solid novel about baseball and growing up in a time of change.

Coming Of Age In Turbulent Times

In his Mickey Mantle's Last Homerun, Steven A. Falco writes an engaging tale of the coming-of-age of two primary characters: TJ, a white New Jersey boy with a love for baseball, and Jonathan, a black New Jersey neighbor, put together in the same high school by integration. While the races keep to themselves in school, when Jonathan and TJ are on the same JV baseball team, they become close friends.

Jonathan is clearly a very intelligent young man with a lot of experience that he shares with his ballplayer mates and white friends in the school through the use of humor and exaggeration. It is 1969, and a lot of things are happening in the wider world that affect both young men. Martin Luther King is killed, putting a damper on Jonathan's usual jovial interaction, sadness in TJ's heart and possible unrest in school and the neighborhoods of North Jersey. But the love of baseball brings the two back together, and with friends, they venture into Manhattan, on their own, to go to games of their favorite team, the New York Yankees.

The Yankees haven't been doing well in recent years and are no longer the team on the top. The last great star, Mickey Mantle, is in his last year. JT wants to see all of his games, but can only get away and afford to see a few. But then, Bobby Kennedy is shot and is lain to rest at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan, famous for side trips save this document has in NYC for the education of his buddies, decides to go see Bobby before the game. A new adventure evolves.

Falco writes primarily with dialogue that is easy to follow and appropriate for the time and place. The story moves along quite well and the adventures of the young men at the school, the ballpark, and the big city, all come together in a pleasing and accurate historical way. A great lesson for young people to read today about a turbulent time 50 years ago. I hope this book gets wide readership from young people as well as their highly concerned parents.

Ronald W. Hull is the author of Hanging by a Thread, his autobiography, and 10 other novels and short story collections.

Nostalgic take on turbulent times through a young baseball fan's eyes. Review by Tom Kranz

Teenagers in a New Jersey high school navigate the racial and political upheaval of 1968 through the nostalgic lens of baseball. Best friends TJ, who is white, and Jonathan, who is black, speak to each other about their differences in a way that is refreshingly honest and which ultimately bonds them through the tense times triggered by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Author Falco is obviously a fan of the minutia of baseball as it is draped over much of the narrative in his descriptions of the characters' exploits on the little league field. This provided a frequent distraction from the more interesting parts of the story as described above, thus four stars vs. five. In the end, the story about lasting friendship is worth the read.