Book Review: That Catskill Summer by Bart Charlow
Romance From A Dude's Perspective, Dirty Dancing Style. I was a (small) kid when Dirty Dancing came out in the late 80s. I remember finding it on VHS at my friend's house (his grandmother's house, where he frequently lived in this era), watching it as a pre-teen... and my Southern Baptist parents being absolutely *shocked* by it, for likely obvious reasons for anyone who has ever seen the movie.
For those that love that movie, this is not even that arguably the singular best tale I've seen since that takes you right back to that time and era - from a man who apparently lived it himself. This is no Baby focused story, as so many romance tales are, but instead a romance written by a dude primarily focused on the dude's side of the romance - and *everything* that entails.
Spice level, we're talking jalapeno to habanero or so - far more than the "clean"/ "sweet" crowd will want, maybe not quite *enough* for the people who can't taste anything milder than a Carolina Reaper and essentially want actual porn on the page. As most readers will fall somewhere in between, I think this tale will be sufficient in that regard for most of us without being something that completely turns any reader away who isn't heterophobic.
The emotional side of this is actually what will catch most romance readers off guard, as it is just as intense as any female written romance novel - but wait, a dude wrote this from the dude's perspective! They're not "supposed" to be that fleshed out, that real, that nuanced! And that is *exactly* the strength of this tale, that our lead *is* so well fleshed out, so real, and so nuanced.
Told from the same perspective across three different time periods as a man lives the Summer of 1967, then decades later writes a book about it, then a few years after that is working with the movie production of the book his best friend is financing, this tale does truly an excellent job of blending all three and staying true to both the period (as I understand it from Dirty Dancing and studying the general history as well as a *few* histories specific to the Borsht Belt) and to more modern movie production and times.
Overall a very strong and rare romance tale, and one that fans of Dirty Dancing really will eat up. If S.M. Stirling's T2: Infiltrator series is the best continuation of T2: Judgement Day (and it is), this is absolutely the best "continuation" of the original Dirty Dancing movie's setting and overall feel I've yet come across.
Very much recommended.
This review of That Catskill Summer by Bart Charlow was originally written on June 28, 2026.
