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Summary: A rare book that is suitable for the whole family.
Review: Jim the character and the "Jim the Boy" the story are both a delight. Earley's writing is a deft combination of simple and lyrical. If, like me, you've got children, this is a book you can share with them and both enjoy.The story follows a year in the life of 10 year old in Depression-era North Carolina. Jim's father died before he was born but his three single uncles serve as wonderful surrogate fathers. There's also a wise old African-American farmhand, (appropriately named Abraham) to give Jim all the father figures he needs. The older men and Jim's mother are are all well-drawn characters. In fact, part of the book's strength is the strong supporting cast for Jim, including a best friend from the mountains. There isn't a single strong enough thread to serve as the book's plot (other than Jim, himself). Though you could argue that point with several fellow readers, with each of you arguing a different aspect of the book as it's primary theme. "Jim the Boy" is a fast read and can serve as a day or two's pleasant distraction, or can be mulled over and examined. I can easily imagine it being adopted by English classes of various age levels. Buy the book and share it with the family.
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Summary: I liked it; I guess some others didn't...
Review: "Jim the Boy" is not the deepest or the most technically well-written novel I have ever read. But I still found it hard to put down. I enjoyed it. A lot of other reviewers have commented that it is "only suitable for children" (I suppose because it has no... violence, or 4-letter words?) Actually, I am not sure children would understand Jim's feelings at the end of the novel - I think they are something you have to have passed out of childhood to understand. I have to admit I welcomed a book where I knew no graphic... scenes would "sneak up" on me.... Life is more than that! "Jim the Boy" is very simply and sparely written. The style is almost flat. But I think that is suitable for the subject matter - the story of the life of a boy, a boy for whom seeing the ocean is a big thing, a boy who has never really traveled out of his small town. The sketchiness of the story and the characters in a way work for it. In a way, it is like memories: do you remember every dinner you ate as a child? Every school day? No, and neither does this novel. And the book points out something really very important: our lives, after all, are defined by the apparently-small moments. Eating a piece of apple. Throwing a ball and hitting someone. Climbing a tree. We may think we are better or more sophisticated than Jim, but ultimately, we are not.
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Summary: Jim the Boy
Review: After reading this book all you can say is WOW. Jim the boy is a story of an young boy in his tenth year of life in the 1930's. In story Jim shows bravery, honesty, and you see as a friend. The story captures you in a way that is unexpected. As you read of the Jim's 10th year of his life you feel as if you are Jim. Tony Earley has produced a beautiful, easy to read book that you won't want to put it down. So if you're looking for a good book to read I greatly suggest you read this.
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Summary: Earley's Lyrical Tale Leaves us Yearning for More
Review: JIM THE BOY takes us to a small North Carolina town on the edge of the mountains during the Great Depression. The story starts with Jim's tenth birthday, and we soon become immersed in his life and discoveries. Jim's father, Jim Glass, Sr., died just before Jim was born. Young Jim, however, feels the presence of the father he never knew in the stories his mother and her three brothers tell repeatedly for his benefit. Elizabeth Glass, his mother, is a strong, sensitive woman, who raises Jim with each of her brothers playing dual roles of uncle and surrogate father. New and exciting events happen to Jim in this classic coming-of-age tale. Electricity comes to Aliceville, the town where they live. Also, a modern, new school opens. Jim feels some trepidation about attending the large school, which will also have kids from the nearby mountains bused in. After a rocky start, he soon forms a friendship with Penn, a "mountain boy," who challenges Jim's stereotypical idea of people from mountain communities. The best parts of this book deal with Jim's deceivingly simple discoveries. Uncle Al decides to take him on a business trip, in which they go through Charlotte, and end up in a new state altogether: South Carolina. Since they've come that far, Al reckons they should go all the way to the ocean. Seeing Charlotte is a huge thrill for Jim, who grew up hearing his mother's stories of going there with her brother right before her wedding to pick out a dress. Earley's prose beautifully portrays their reactions to the vast Atlantic. This delightful, heartwarming story of a close-knit family satisfies and still leaves the reader wanting to learn more about the wonderful characters in JIM THE BOY.
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Summary: A Charming Book
Review: "Jim the Boy" is one of the most simply, yet beautifully crafted novels I have read in quite a while. One one level it may seem to be somewhat simplistic and a quick and easy read. However, the skilful and artistic author has in fact written a deep and emotionally moving novel about the depression-era childhood of a fatherless boy under the care and guidance of his mother and three uncles. I confess to reading this only because it was the featured novel at my book club this month, but am so very glad that I did. I found it fascinating to see how Jim's uncles guided him through life's sometimes hard-learned lessons with both toughness and compassion. I look forward to my group's discussion later this week.
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Summary: "Catcher in the Rye" without troublesome adjectives
Review: Highly recommended for anyone who was born in, came from, or has relatives in a small town, particularly a small town in western NC or SC. Extra points if you're from around Rutherford, Gaffney, Shelby, or points thereby. Imagine "Catcher in the Rye" written from the point of view of a child who actually wants to catch baseballs, and who may be growing up on a farm that COULD be growing rye, and is as Southern rural as you can get without stomping on any politically correct toes. Tony Earley's first "novel" isn't so much a novel as it is a humorous and melancholy episodal remembrance of pre-adolescence in a small Southern town. Since Earley's date of birth comes much later than the setting in the novel (and Earley was born a scant few years before my birth), and since the small town in question is (apparently) about 30 miles from my small town of birth, I have a soft spot for his prose. The reader will NOT find a great novel here; however, the reader will find a tender and nuanced piece of fiction that will bring back memories to anyone born in the South sometime before the 1970's. Indeed, those born in ANY small town with any knowledge of their childhood-town's history will wince and nod knowingly, assuming that Earley was really writing about their town. Jim's coming of age has no rude points, but suggests the pre-adolescent angst. The book is concise--you can easily read it in one sitting, probably in a few hours. If the milieu and memories dredged up resound with you, the reader will probably want to go back and re-read some of the sections, just for the nostalgia. And, all that aside, the last section of the book, indeed, the last 3 or 4 pages of the book, are perhaps the best writing to come out of the South in decades. Earley has pieced together vignettes that border upon "young adult" fiction, along with a style that reminds one of Faulkner at his wittiest and Welty at her tenderest, and topped it off with a heart-wrenching finale that should make you cry. I should reiterate "witty"--there are some belly laughs in this book. The "lights on" section is laugh-out-loud, and the acerbic humor of the uncles deserves more chapters, or at least a re-visitation by Earley. The understated humor, even in the dramatic passages, suggest that Earley is holding back on us--he could become this generation's version of Jean Shepherd, if he chose to. The main drawback to the book is that it's too short. I gave it less than 5 stars mainly because of that, and partly because it sometimes reads as if some of the sections were meant as "young adult" prose but then changed into a "real adult" novel. I've been a fan of Earley even before his short stories were collected in "Here We Are in Paradise", and had hoped that his first novel would be a massive neo-Faulkner/Percy/Welty revival. I was disappointed with "Jim the Boy" for the first few tens of pages due to that expectation. Then, I got into the flow of the writing, and changed my expectations. The book reads in many places like a "young adult" work, and that's OK--I'd recommend it for teenagers. Then again, the nuances and beauty of the writing are obviously a bit more sophisticated than most "young adult" offerings, so it must be a real adult book. Of course, "As I Lay Dying" reads like a "young adult" book, and look what's in there. And, as I suggested earlier, IF you're from a small town and latch onto the protagonists in the first 20 or so pages, you'll bawl like a baby on the last page.
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Summary: Doris Buchanan Smith for grownups.
Review: This book has been done a disservice by being placed on school reading lists. It lacks the hooks of melodrama and humor, and either more contemporary or fantastic setting that would make it acceptable for a classroom of middle or high school students, and a hero too young and unheroic for most high school readers. ( The town scene of sorta gang behavior doesn't cut it.) For those 14 and younger, I'd recommend instead anything by Doris Buchanan Smith, particularly Return to Bitter Creek, for similar setting and development.
For adults and older adolescents, it's a book to happen upon and then read for the gently developed extended vignettes of place and character, and the calm of simply stated dialogue.
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Summary: A lovely story
Review: An absolutely lovely story about a ten year old boy becoming aware of the world he lives in and the people around him. Tender and loving, but definitely not overbearingly so. Jim is lucky to have a loving family, but a family that doesn't smother him or overshelter him with that love. A real feel-good book, suitable for young adult readers and up.
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Summary: Title
Review: Jim the Boy, by Toney Earley, is a great book that is easy to read and you won't get bored reading it. It's one of those book as you get into it you want to read more and more. I would recomend this book to anybody, because it is intresting and it's a good way to realx by reading it.
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Summary: A sweet, lyrical, affectionate novel that warms the heart.
Review: In Jim the Boy Tony Earley has created a sweet, lyrical, truly affectionate novel that lovingly conveys the coming of age of a 10 year old boy in Depression Era North Carolina. This is a character driven book and Earley proves himself to be a true artist when is comes to the fine--yet undervalued--art of character development. Jim comes across as a genuine 10 year old boy. All too often, in my opinion, young characters in novels are just like kid characters in a movie, where a 24 year old is playing a 14 year old and comes across exactly like a 24 year old portraying a 12 year old. Jim's behavior, thought patterns, emotive responses and relationships are those of a 10 year old. That's not to say they are primitive or simplistic-they are in fact the complex, mundane, heartwarming genuine aspects of a kids life. The character of Jim would be a success unto itself but Early brings his artistry also to the other characters in this very fine novel. Jim's mother and 3 uncles (who are helping to raise the fatherless boy) are equally well crafted. Even the bit players'a traveling salesman the uncles know, the overpowering yet absent grandfather who has terrorized the family since kingdom-come, the kids in the school yard, are also lovingly crafted. The other thing that marks this book as special is that it lacks The Great Event'this is the novel of an ordinary boy growing up. T's not that there isn't hardship'the boy's father is dead, there's the tyrannical grandfather, there's the usual skirmishes and close calls and so on, but there is nothing here that any ordinary 10 year old wouldn't have experienced and dealt with in the normal course of events. Which brings us to this book's ultimate'and extraordinary'achievement. Jim the Boy is a story that effectively and lovingly demonstrates the extraordinary beauty, dignity and honor intrinsic to the simple living of the ordinary life. The magnificence of ordinary family love, community life, friendship. The fact that decent human beings can create something out of what appears to be not much of anything. That is, the fact that our own lives are filled with beauty and wonder. This is a truly wonderful book EVERYONE in the family can read and enjoy.
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