When I started reading “Summer Crossing” by Steve Tesich recently, I almost tossed the book aside after a few pages.
The story opens at a state wrestling championships where the protagonist, Daniel Price, has a chance to win the championship against a heavily-favored opponent. At one point, the narrative mentions Price scoring a takedown and updates the score of the match.
Here’s where the problem starts. They only added one point to Price’s total. A takedown is worth two points in folkstyle wrestling, always and forever as far as I know. The sport I have spent much of my life involved with does not get much attention in any kind of media, so when it does get favorable treatment and mistake happens, I bristle. The movie “Vision Quest” has a similar scene which I still have trouble watching.
Despite this quirk of mine, I manage to like the movie and moved past Tesich’s error to thoroughly enjoy “Summer Crossing,” which is sadly out of print. I bought it at a used book sale several years back and just happened upon it while looking for something to read last month. The jacket depicted here is actually from the German translation – I could not find any photos online of the U.S. jacket.
The story takes us through Daniel’s 1960 world as he takes on his final months of high school after the state tournament and his first summer after graduation. Tesich artfully weaves in changes in Daniel’s relationships with his parents, friends and the mysterious and moody girl he falls for during this time.
Having read a couple of novels I did not enjoy so much recently, I found this to be a pleasant surprise. My only beef is that I thought Tesich tried to cover a little too much ground. There just seems to be too much happening around Daniel so that sometimes it’s hard to see how each of the tangents in his life is affecting him.
That really didn’t hurt the book for me, however. I think it’s kind of understandable since Tesich made his name as a screenwriter, including the Academy Award-winning script for “Breaking Away” in 1979. That story touches many of the same themes as “Summer Crossing” in a much more tidy fashion. The book was published three years after the movie debuted, so maybe he just explored the freedom of the format with similar subject matter.
Either way, it’s easy to see the gift he had. I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories anyway.
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Be still my heart. I went to high school with Steve Tesich..He wrestled on the school team all 4 years. He even used his real wrestling coach”s name : French. this story is a semi autobiographical tale of his growing up in East Chicago, In