Rally Round The Flag, Boys!, Max Shulman
Rally Round The Flag, Boys!, Max Shulman
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Rally Round The Flag, Boys!

Author: Max Shulman

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 5 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/15/2023

Categories: Fiction, Satire, Humorous


Synopsis

Harry Bannerman drinks his nightly bourbon on the train from New York City to Putnam's Landing, Connecticut. A typical commuter, he has a bald spot, a house, two mortgages, three children, and a wife who is a committed soccer mom and pillar of the community.

Second Lt. Guido di Maggio loves baseball less than his last name implies and his fiancée, Maggie Larkin, more than the army allows. College sweethearts, the couple has their future all mapped out: Guido will complete his military service in Maryland while Maggie starts her teaching career in Putnam's Landing. But when Guido is reassigned to Alaska and Maggie loses her job for giving a sex talk to second graders, their plans go up in smoke.

To avoid Alaska and save his relationship with Maggie, Guido takes the thankless job directing public relations at a new anti-aircraft base in Putnam's Landing. What happens next in this national bestseller is a dark and funny story of the disaffected and disconnected in Cold War suburbia as tensions mount between the "invading" army and a bevy of local teenagers; between frustrated commuters and their frustrated wives; between social do-gooders and Yankee conservatives; and between romantic dreams of the artist's life in New York and the pedestrian reality of having to earn a living to house and feed a growing family.

About Max Shulman

Max Shulman (1919-1988) was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and short story writer best known as the author of Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1957), The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1951), and the popular television series of the same name. The son of Russian immigrants, Shulman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota, where he wrote a celebrated column for the campus newspaper and edited the humor magazine. His bestselling debut novel, Barefoot Boy with Cheek (1943), was followed by two books written while he served in the Army during World War II: The Feather Merchants (1944) and The Zebra Derby (1946). The Tender Trap (1954), a Broadway play cowritten with Robert Paul Smith, was adapted into a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds. His acclaimed novel Rally Round the Flag, Boys! became a film starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Shulman's other books include Sleep till Noon (1950), a hilarious reinvention of the rags-to-riches tale; I Was a Teenage Dwarf (1959), which chronicles the further adventures of Dobie Gillis; Anyone Got a Match? (1964), a prescient satire of the tobacco, television, and food industries; and Potatoes Are Cheaper (1971), the tale of a romantic Jewish college student in depression-era St. Paul. His movies include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (with Debbie Reynolds and Bob Fosse) and House Calls (with Walter Mathau and Glenda Jackson). One of America's premier humorists, he greatly influenced the comedy of Woody Allen and Bob Newhart, among many others.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Majenta on July 03, 2022

Happy Fourth of July!......more

Goodreads review by Larry on September 04, 2013

No one reads Max Shulman books anymore. The loss is theirs. This is one of his best and still cracks me up.......more

Goodreads review by Judy on August 05, 2010

The #4 bestseller of 1957 is a piece of fluff about life in the suburbs circa the mid 50s. This is a common theme in books from that decade and is usually handled with wit when it is not a psychological study of dysfunction. Shulman's is heavy on the humor. Harry Bannerman works in New York City bu......more

Goodreads review by Jay Edwards on June 12, 2025

I’m always going to give a Max Shulman book five stars because he always gives you what you expect. Whether it is this book of a Connecticut town thrown for a loop when the army decides it has to put a missile site smack dang in the middle of it or it’s the love adventures of Dobie Gillis, you’re go......more

Goodreads review by A Michael on August 24, 2017

Dated, but very well written and incredibly entertaining.......more