<![CDATA[Jim the Boy: A Novel]]>

false <![CDATA[Jim the Boy: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171130878m/88263.jpg 88263 5 Tony Earley made his debut with Here We Are in Paradise, a superbly understated collection of (mostly) small-town vignettes. He returns to the same terrain in his first novel, Jim the Boy, setting this coming-of-age story in a remote North Carolina hamlet. The year is 1934, and like the rest of the country, Aliceville is feeling the pinch of the Great Depression. Yet neither Jim nor his mother nor his three uncles – who have split the paternal role neatly among themselves since the death of Jim's father a decade earlier – are feeling much in the way of economic pain. Indeed, if you stuck a satellite dish on the front lawn, the story might be taking place in the New South rather than the older, bucolic one. This isn't to suggest that Earley is deaf to social detail. Indeed, there are all sorts of wonderful touches, like the décor in Jim's classroom, with its "large, colorful maps of the United States, the Confederacy, and the Holy Land during the time of Jesus." But Jim the Boy is very much the tale of a 10-year-old's expanding consciousness, which at first barely extends beyond the family property. Earley has a real gift for conveying childhood epiphanies, like Jim's sudden apprehension of the wider world during a trip in Uncle Al's truck: Two thoughts came to Jim at once, joined by a thread of amazement: he thought, People live here, and he thought, They don't know who I am. At that moment the world opened up around Jim like hands that, until that moment, had been cupped around him; he felt very small, almost invisible, in the open air of their center, but knew that the hands would not let him go. It was almost like flying. The simple lyricism and anti-ironic sweetness work mostly to the book's advantage. There are times, it's true, when Earley sands his prose down to an unnatural smoothness, and we seem to be edging toward the sentimental precincts of a young-adult novel. But on the whole, Jim the Boy is a lovely, meticulous work – a song of innocence and (eventually) experience, delivered with just a hint of a North Carolina accent. – James Marcus 85173 1 4 2001 Jim the Boy: A Novel total:729|5:186|4:277|3:207|2:49|1:10| 729 2767 1038 173 5 2 false false Sun Jul 27 13:34:12 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 06:03:22 -0700 2008
But of two of my good writing friends ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Tue Aug 26 15:47:38 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 15:54:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Nov 03 11:23:14 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 18:54:03 -0800 2009
Coming of Age in North Carolina

Although much young adult literature today is dark, edgy, and/or ironic, Tony Early’s “Jim the Boy” (Little, Brown & Company, 2000) and “The Blue Star” (Little, Brown & Company, 200...more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Jan 27 12:40:48 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 13:06:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 09:48:43 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 07:40:38 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Dec 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 19:27:31 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 13:36:45 -0800 2008
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The book is a quick read, I finished ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 07 14:16:42 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 14:29:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 09:47:59 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 08:02:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 04 20:38:23 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 20:49:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 30 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 09:15:58 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 20:44:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Sep 27 18:02:30 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 08 22:51:15 -0800 2008
Jim is growing up during the Great Depression in Aliceville, North Carolina. Aliceville and he h...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 15:12:19 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 10:29:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Dec 06 11:56:52 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 25 06:14:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Sat Jul 11 17:56:03 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 17:56:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 17:08:28 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 17:45:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 10 07:38:51 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 14:00:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 06:56:53 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 07:01:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 17:53:54 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 18:01:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=88263