This Is Next Year [Paperback]

Philip Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 1992

1955. As the Brooklyn Dodgersmarch into another World Series with their nemesis, the Yankees, one boy, believing the fate of his parent's marriage hinges on victory, tries to end the Bums' curse by himself. This exuberant tale of love and redemption "captures the joys and terrors of childhood in the period with wit, charm and intelligence," said Publisher's Weekly.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A first novel by nonfiction author Goldberg ( The Intuitive Edge ), this is projected as the first volume of a trilogy. Narrator/hero Roger Stone is an 11-year-old who aspires to play shortstop for the Dodgers. He is at the center of the antics of his loving parents--his father a frustrated ballplayer and his mother waging a spirited anti-McCarthy fight in the local school--and two brothers in the baseball-mad Brooklyn of 1955, when the Dodgers obsessed the entire borough. Goldberg writes lovingly and evocatively of egg creams, stoopball, nascent rock 'n' roll and, most of all, the magical summer and fall in which the Brooklyn Dodgers finally won their one and only World Series. The book suffers from a surfeit of metaphor and a few historical inaccuracies ("C-Jam Blues" is an Ellington tune not, as Goldberg has it, a Basie; Russ Hodges's famous broadcast of the Bobby Thomson homer in the 1951 playoffs was on radio, not television). On the whole, however, this work captures the joys and terrors of childhood in the period with wit, charm and intelligence.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- This nostalgic account of the 1955 pennant race offers satisfaction for both baseball enthusiasts and English teachers. Generous use of descriptive language gives depth to the setting and characters; along the way, readers are also enlightened about Spaldeens, egg creams, Creamsicles, and other essentials of life for 11-year-old Roger Stone of Brooklyn. The plot turns on his belief that his cap is the lucky charm necessary for a Dodgers' victory in the World Series. It's not enough to make this an absorbing novel, but the story is worth completing for the vocabulary alone.
-Rod Clemmons, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (February 11, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345366476
• ISBN-13: 978-0345366474
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,981,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Goldberg grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles like the Dodgers before him. A professional writer for 35 years, he is author or coauthor of 19 books, all but one nonfiction. He is also a skilled public speaker, a spiritual counselor, and an ordained Interfaith Minister. His latest book is American Veda, which chronicles the impact of India's spiritual teachings on the West. Huffington Post named it one of the top 10 Religion books of 2010.