Theme Week – Sports
Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The Last Day of Summer
AUTHOR: J.F. Smith
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 477 Pages
BLURB:
Rett’s done some running away in his life, from family and from boyfriends, and he’s not above doing it again. His current boyfriend wants to take their relationship to the next level, which makes Rett hesitant and doubtful. Luckily, a job offer in a new town solves his problem for him, giving him the perfect excuse to run away yet again from the uncomfortable feeling of someone trying to get close to him, even if it means picking up after seven years of school and starting over.
Most guys would kill for his new job, and Rett’s certainly desperate for the paycheck. But the irony of the new position isn’t lost on him — he’s never cared a whole lot for sports, and even far less about the world of professional sports, which is right where he’s landed. Then he finds out he’s not the only one that’s new to pro sports, and he gets closer and closer to one of the players as they try to make sense of the whole crazy thing together. And things seem good!
But when his family, whom he had long since left behind, shows back up with a family crisis, his life starts to unwind and Rett allows everything around him to painfully self-destruct. It’s only then that he realizes he’s got to get back up, stand his ground, and teach himself the one thing he never truly learned growing up.
He’s got to stop running away and finally learn what it really means to be a man.
REVIEW:
Sooo, I’m going to shamelessly gush for a minute. This is my second week in a row with a Flashback Friday Review on a J.F. Smith book. You may have noticed I love this guy’s writing! The Last Day of Summer is by far my favorite of his books, and I’ll come right out and say it, I believe it is my favorite all time m/m book. I’m really happy to share it with you today!
In The Last Day of Summer, we meet Everett, or Rett. Rett has one of those fathers who is never happy with anything he does. He was never manly enough for his dad. He wasn’t perfect at sports, he didn’t do manly hobbies, etc. So Rett left home at eighteen and has never looked back. He is now twenty-five and has just finished seven years of self-paid education to get his degree in Physical Therapy.
When Rett can’t find a job in Montgomery, and to escape his boyfriend that he really isn’t that happy with, Rett expands his job search to Mobile which is about three hours away. Rett sends his resume to a job that doesn’t really give any details. The interview is mysterious. When he gets there for the interview ten minutes late, the woman outside the interview suite tells him good luck with his next interview…elsewhere! That is our introduction to this horrible little old lady named Rosemary Karan. Luckily the man who is actually doing the interviews happens to walk by and tells Rett to have a seat. It is while waiting that Rett first sees a man that he instantly nicknames “Bigfoot”. More on him later. Rett has his interview, which continues to be mysterious, and the Doctor interviewing him still refuses to disclose who the job is with. Then he is offered the position, accepts it, and only then finds out he is the new Physical Therapist for the Mobile Joe’s Major League Baseball team. This couldn’t come as any more of a surprise, since Rett knows nothing about baseball!
Rett moves to Mobile and starts the job but neglects to tell his boyfriend Mike why he left. This will come back to potentially haunt him in the near future. Rett is nervous about anyone finding out he is gay. The Team Manager, Ahab, spouted some quite homophobic rants, and Rett overheard the new player, who he still thinks of as “Bigfoot”, call someone a “Worthless Faggot”. One of my favorite parts of the book is when a particularly homophobic, racist, and narcissistic player comes into the locker room and whips out his dick at Rett, showing him the steady drip that is coming from it. Once Rett notices the therapists laughing outside the room and knowing they are the ones that sent the player, nicknamed “Skunk: to him, Rett decides to play along and tells Skunk he will have to go get the doctor to look at it…but in the meantime hands Skunk a paper cup. When Skunk inquires why, Rett responds:
“The oozing is late stage. If Skunk Jr. falls off before I can find Dr. Bala and get him back here, just put it in the paper cup and we’ll figure out what to do from there.”
As you can imagine, Skunk freaks out and he chokes out “Falls off?” before he clues in that the rest of the team who are within hearing distance are laughing their asses off at him. Needless to say, Rett has made an instant enemy.
Let’s get back to “Bigfoot”. Despite his homophobic comments to his personal manager, Bigfoot is actually a nice guy, who ends up driving Rett back and forth to work while his car is out of service. And then when Bigfoot overhears Rett’s ex, Mike, one morning going off on Rett in his apartment about his just leaving and never breaking up, he discovers that Rett is gay. Later that day, Bigfoot makes a confession, that he too is gay. For any of you who read the book I reviewed last week, “Falling Off the Face of the Earth”, Bigfoot is Cory Pritchard from that story. Cory is now grown up, graduated from college and drafted by the Joe’s. He is new to the Joes as well.
I was so happy to see Cory get his own story intertwined with Rett’s. The interplay between this great hulk of a Pitcher, and the slight Physical Therapist is endearing. There are highs and there are crushing lows as they get to know each other.
Another of my favorite parts of the book is when Cory’s parents come to Mobile to watch Cory pitch his first actual game for the Joes. It is the first time Rett has slept with Cory and Rett wakes up the next morning, thinking Cory is laying on the bed next to him. When Rett throws his arm over Cory, something feels off and when he opens up his eyes, a total stranger is looking back at him. As he yanks his arm away he hears:
“Mornin’, Rett. So…, you’re the one turning my son queer?”
Rett scrambles back “faster than a meth-addicted ferret”, falls off the bed onto the floor, then jumps up totally naked and holding a pillow over his parts he backs away from the huge hulk of a man. If you remember Jerry Pritchard from the other book you will understand the humor. If not, just imagine a 6’5” bear of a man, who happens to be the Chief of Police in their hometown, and an ex-Army Ranger making that comment to you first thing in the morning when you’ve just woken up in his son’s bed…after having sex half the night. What a way to meet someone’s parents!
Happily it works out, at least for now. The two men get to know each other and it starts to really look like their relationship is going somewhere. Of course, the relationship is 100% in the closet in relation to the team. What will happen when Cory’s pitching career goes from 0 to 100 in one game and in one night? Rett starts to feel Cory has an entire life which would be better without him. When Jimmy, Cory’s personal manager, offers Rett money to get lost and get out of Cory’s life….will Rett make the biggest mistake of his life and take it?
I very highly recommend you get the book and find out. Mr. Smith’s writing style is witty, with lots of humorous lines, particularly between Rett and his former roommate Val. I personally think it would be exhausting to sit between the two of them and hear them bicker! The sex in this book is understated, but really the book is more about a relationship between two men and their relationships with their friends, families and coworkers.
I love this book. It is very long for this genre at 477 pages, but it is well worth every page. I particularly enjoyed the last 100 or so pages, when I counted down…thinking to myself….only 90 more pages, only 80 more pages, etc. I’ve read the book now three or four times, and still love it. Give it a try, you won’t be sorry.
RATING: 
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