Bottomless Cups by Joel Bresler-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 27, 2020

Teddy Greenwald and Ray Starck have known one another since the Truman Administration. What began as a mutual interest in sneak-reading comic books in class evolved into a friendship which has outlasted a great many Presidents and a whole lot more, besides.

Teddy and Ray, along with two other boys, formed the core of a group of kids who did everything together. As teenagers, they discovered that restaurants gave free coffee refills even if you didn’t order anything else, leading to a lifetime’s worth of bottomless cups and frustrated restaurant owners. Now in advanced age, Teddy and Ray still meet regularly to drink too much coffee and talk about the things old guys usually tend to talk about. In between, they flash back to various times and events which helped shape their lives.

One of their once-close group, who has enjoyed a modestly successful career in Hollywood, comes up with the idea of making a movie about their youthful experiences together and what came after for each of them. This would, of course, include starring the surviving originals as the present-day versions of their cinematic selves. For some, however, facing their past, present and inevitable future all in one sitting proves considerably more difficult than it looks on the silver screen.

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REVIEW: Bottomless Cups is a humorous and witty story of old friends, now octogenarians. It’s a long and warm tale of the two boys becoming friends and adding to their group as they grew up, through grade school, high school, and during and after their college years.

The story begins with the two main characters (Teddy and Ray) having a small quarrel, that they’ve been having for over fifty years, as to whether Ray’s father had an accent.

For those old enough to know, this story is quite eloquently told from the friends point of view, with a lot of quippy humor. Being of nearly that age, I found it sweet and nostalgic.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Georgianna S