July 15, 2002
Here is proof that when there's a film deal in the works, publishers will snap up the book and promote it as a literary event. Carcaterra, who landed on the big screen with his New York Times
bestseller Sleepers, builds his flimsy tale around a Neapolitan legend describing a 1943 skirmish between armored German occupation forces and local street urchins. In doing so, he draws inspiration from a host of sources ranging from The Secret of Santa Vittoria
to Saving Private Ryan. Steve Connors, an American commando cut off from his unit, joins forces with a group of Neapolitan slum children orphaned by the war. The one-dimensional characters and their names could have been taken from a war comic: there is the dutiful Nazi named Von Klaus, who knows that Germany will lose the war, but is determined to follow his orders no matter what; Nunzia, the love interest; even a faithful mastiff who stays by Connors's side throughout. The amateurish writing—especially the dialogue ("The Nazis have destroyed Naples, but they have not destroyed us")—seems formatted for quick and easy screen adaptation, weaving cookie-cutter moments together in picturesquely ravaged locales. The reader can almost hear the director shouting, "Cue Panzers!" Cliché-addled, unconvincing and loaded with ridiculous throwaway lines, this novel will need all the help it can get from the film version. (Sept.)Forecast:The book's shortcomings will be more than made up for in marketing: for starters, a six-city author tour, national advertising in major newspapers, national radio advertising and a teaser chapter in the paperback of
Gangster. Best of all, perhaps: Barry Levinson is to direct the Warner Bros. film version.
May 1, 2002
In World War II Naples, homeless children take on the advancing Germans single-handedly, with just a few primitive weapons and the help of a stranded American G.I. Soon to be a major motion picture.
Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2002
Carcaterra dramatizes a story he heard many times growing up about a real-life band of Italian children, orphaned by the Nazi invasion, who refused to leave their beloved Naples. Instead, they hid in the hills and scraped together a makeshift army. As Carcaterra embellishes the tale, American soldier Steve Connors, sent to rescue any remaining civilians, instead reluctantly stays on to aid the young, determined, and seemingly doomed entourage. But they are a resourceful bunch, and the resistance they mount baffles the beleaguered Nazi soldiers, who, in the fall of 1943, know already that Italy eventually will fall to the Allies. Still, the Nazis approach the children as if they were any other group of enemy fighters, and when the streetwise young people continue to flourish, the Nazis are both frustrated and determined not to be made fools of by a pack of kids. Though the story itself is gripping, Carcaterra's telling is overly melodramatic and dripping with cliches--from Connors' small-town view of the world to the children's undying patriotism to the love story that develops between Connors and one of the Italian girls. Still, the syrupy plot is endearing in spite of itself, and it will make perfect Hollywood fodder; in fact, Barry Levinson is slated to direct the Warner Brothers release of a movie version (as he did Carcaterra's "Sleepers"). Expect the film buzz to help create demand. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)
September 1, 2002
Just when you think World War II as a subject in fiction has been exhausted, along comes the latest from Carcaterra (Sleepers). Inspired partly by his own family's experiences in 1943 Naples, Carcaterra's latest tells the story of orphaned and abandoned boys and girls, some as young as ten, and their guerrilla warfare against the Nazis. U.S. Army corpsman Steve Connors is caught behind enemy lines and helps coordinate their assaults. While this is a story about children, it is most definitely not a story for children. Although not without moments of humor and romance, Street Boys is exciting, graphic, brutal, grim, and tense. The action is virtually nonstop, and the urban warfare in the streets and sewers of Naples is gritty and evocative of Stalingrad in David Robbins's War of the Rats. Although a climactic scene has American planes dropping bombs with hugely improbable accuracy, Carcaterra has written an otherwise gripping story. Recommended for all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/02.]-Robert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.