Customer Reviews

700 Sundays

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book at the Hudson News Stand in Grand Central Station on Saturday morning and finished it at home in Huntington Beach, California on Sunday night. My trip home across the country in 24 hours seemed like nothing compared to the sentimental journey in time that Billy Crystal took me through.

This is a book that a baby-boomer guy will enjoy with its references to the Beatles, the Yankees, the family cars of the 1950's, the first girl we fell in love with, and family outings every Sunday. While Billy took me through a Jewish version of growing up at this time, I could see some similarities with the way I went through my Japanese-American coming of age. Like Billy's family, our lives were built around the Sundays, the holidays, and summer vacations.

I've read a few negative reviews on this book which I'm sure have their place in criticizing this as a great literary piece. But this is Billy Freakin' Crystal! Mr. City Slicker and Harry of When Harry Met Sally. This is the guy who does the big award shows and Saturday Night Live. This is a regular guy of our time...one of us. This is not James Michener or Ernest Hemingway.

So read it because it's a joy to look back at our lives growing up in the 1950's and 1960's. When families didn't have much in terms of financial resources, but life was real,innocent, and darn good although lacking by today's material standards. But I'd never trade in those baby-boomer years for the shallowness that today's youth must deal with.

I hope that Billy does well as he takes his Broadway show across the country for the rest of America to enjoy. I'm glad he wrote this book and created the play. For me, it was a special adventure and one I'm so grateful for.

I hope that Billy continues to share himself with the public with his thoughts, humor, and candor.

The only thing that makes the Broadway performance better is the fact that Billy Crystal performed it in person on Broadway. Here, we read the script...but in reading the script, you can hear his voice, and his mannerisms come easily and readily to mind. This is a good book, true to the stage play, just as good, except we don't have Billy Crystal in person...All the pathos, joy, frustration and delight, the happiness and security of family. That's what this book is about, his family and our families, and Billy Crystal makes it come alive for all of us. Don't miss the Broadway show (now touring) and don't miss this book.

If you're familiar with Billy Crystal's comic delivery, you can almost hear him narrating this book, which is the script for his one man autobiographical Broadway show of the same name. Although it loses something in translation when read, the story of Billy Crystal's "700 Sundays," the number of days he calculated he actually got to spend with his father, who worked six days a week and spent Sundays devoted to his family, prior to his sudden and unexpected death when Billy was only 15, is enjoyable reading for two reasons. In addition to the humor he injects, the author tells the remarkable story of a loving, mutually supportive, successful, "functional" family, which is refreshing. Second, the story offers some historical sense of the era in which it was written, because so many of his extended family were innovative and influential, particularly in the entertainment industry. Billy's father promoted jazz in New York, and put together iterracial bands to play at major venues. None of these threads overpower the story itself, the simple story of a son recounting his memories of the love and support he received from his father, and the effect the relationship, more than the premature loss of it, had on his life. Although it's a poignant story, the reader essentially feels uplifted.

Billy Crystal is one of those comedians that can make me laugh out loud when I am all by myself. I took it to a Doctor's appointment and found myself giggling in the reception area.......a little embarassing. Billy is terrific.

Billy Crystal has a way with words, and a way to just make you roll in laughter, bring you into your heart by sharing memories, where you almost feel yourself getting chocked up, and then in a nanosecond, you're back to cracking up laughing at his humor, coupled with all-too-real life scenarios. This book is truly one to savor.

Crystal's humor is evident -here he writes:

"And men talk to their cars, just like they're women-"Come on girl, turn over baby, turn over."

And, the touching way Crystal shares about his Dad and family life: He writes:

"He worked so hard for us all the time. He held down two jobs, including weekend nights. The only day we really had alone with him was Sunday. Sunday was our day for my two brothers and I to put on a show and make them laugh.... And Dad would come in like three, four o'clock on a Sunday morning after working all weekend. Just as the sun came up, I would tiptoe over to their bedroom, which was right next to my room in the back, and I would quietly open the door just a little, and there they would be, Mom and Dad, lying there, looking so quiet, and so peaceful together. And I would sit in the doorway waiting for him to wake up, just to see what we were going to do together that day. I just couldn't wait for Sundays. I couldn't wait for Sundays. He died suddenly when I was fifteen. I once calculated that I had roughly 700 Sundays. That's it. 700 Sundays. Not a lot of time for a kid to have with his dad."

This book will bring you a lot more than I can describe. I haven't had the honor to see the show, but the book is an experience. Truly one to savor, and one that you'll always remember. An Outstanding read!

Barbara Rose, Ph.D. author of Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE and Know Yourself
Editor, inspire! magazine

I expected to laugh---and I did. I expected to enjoy the stories---and I did. I did not expect to get all teary-eyed and choked up---but I did.

I did not know that Billy Crystal grew up knowing famous musicians and athletes. But he did: his father, his uncle, and his grandfather owned a music store and the Commodore jazz label, and were great friends with the jazz and pop and rock greats. Billy saw his first movie while sitting on Billie Holiday's lap. At his first baseball game, he sat in Louis Armstrong's seats at Yankee Stadium.

But it's not the relationships with famous people that make his life and this book memorable. His life, of course, is memorable for his own achievements in comedy. His book is memorable because of its touching portrayal of his relationships with his father, his mother, and the rest of his large and loving extended family.

For those of us who grew up, as Billy Crystal did, in the 1950s and 1960s, for those of us who've lost a parent or both of them, for those of us who've already lived more than half of our expected span of years, this book is a funny, touching, sentimental, and ultimately optimistic echo of our own sometimes painful journey through life.

Now I want to go watch some Billy Crystal movies.

The tough thing about reading books by comedians is that they seem to be missing something - the words need to be read aloud, not read silently in one's head. There is an element of that flatness in 700 Sundays, a memoir of Crystal's early years, but there's more than just a transcript of his monologues. Read between the jokes and you'll see the story of a family, from the great Uncle Berns to the sassy Aunt Sylvia, but most of all Crystal's nuclear family - his mom, dad, and the three sons.

From Yankee Stadium to Long Beach, New York, Crystal tells the tales that shaped him as a child and young adult. Early comedy performances for the extended families, hanging out with jazz greats like Billie Holliday, and plenty of brisket and noodle kugel.

Throughout it all is the poignancy of the early death of Crystal's father, and the hole he left behind.

Part Patricia Volk, part Neil Simon, 100 percent Crystal.

This is a wonderful read! Its very easy to find Billy's 'voice' in this memoir; I bought it @ 2PM Saturday and finished it by 9:30PM.
Its also a quick read filled with lots of emotion and laughs.
I can relate to losing a parent at an early age and the fact that Billy grew up a few towns away from me(I went to the Far Rockaway High School that he mentions as 'Aunt Sheila').
I truly enjoyed it! He truly is one of our more beloved entertainers!

This book is not just a book for comedy fans. It is a great book for anyone who wants to hear a great true story. Funny at times, touching at times, Crystal did a great job.

I often find Crystal's live show much funnier 'cos it is more of his real personality/charisma, so, when I read his book, I felt that I was watching his live show in my own room. Just like I was in a boat with Crystal along his life river. Not only it was funny, but also I felt that I knew much more the way Billy grew up and the reasons why he looked at his life.