Jim the Boy : A Novel

Jim The Boy is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a very exciting and wonderful book. I really wished it never ended. I read Jim the Boy with my mom. Jim the Boy is a novel, fiction. I really enjoyed it. Jim the Boy is about a boy growing up in North Carolina in a town called Aliceville during the depression. His father's name was Jim also, but he died a few days before "Jim the boy" was born. His beloved uncles who helped to raise him were Uncle Coran, Uncle Al and Uncle Zeno, and they were some of the main characters along with Jim's mom and his wicked grandfather. Three situations that I thought were important were when electricity came to his town for the first time, when his best friend got polio, and when the train first made a stop at Aliceville because the towns people named it after the conductor's daughter. I really, really hope that Tony Earley writes another book about Jim the boy as Jim grows older.

Jim the Boy follows young Jim Glass throughout the year following his 10th birthday. The son of a man who died before he was born, Jim is living with his mother and under the care of his unmarried uncles. He moves about Aliceville, North Carolina as he begins to expand his world, a new school and new friends,athe first baseball glove and a chance "encounter" with Ty Cobb. He also is more aware of his family, beginning to look at them, seeing the struggle his mother has with raising a son on her own, his uncles gentle understanding (and their lives outside their care of him) and a expanding knowledge of his father's childhood up in the hills. There are also glimpses of the depression, the social strata, and the expansion of technology into small town life. The characters are all well drwan,and believable, true to the small town roots without being cloying or condensending. I think this is a book for all ages, a true treasure.

When I first starting reading this book, I thought the life of these characters was just too wonderful. How can anyone's life be this plain and perfect. But that's the attraction and what makes this story seem like a sweet story from the distant past when things were so much more calmer and families really stayed together. If we could only all show so much innocense and love for each other today."Jim the Boy" tells the story of a young boy named Jim, coming of age, in a very remote and peaceful North Carolina town. It's 1934 and during the depression. Jim's father has been dead 10 years now, and his 3 wonderful uncles are now his mentors, who deeply care for Jim and their sister Cissy. The story from this point on tells of Jim's everyday adventures, and feelings while growing up. Tony Earley's beautiful descriptions of this time period, small town life, and everyday surroundings are indeed poetic. It's like a breath of fresh air in the countryside, and I mean rural countryside. It's nice to settle back, relax, and fantazise about an earlier peaceful time when people lived so differently than we do now. A truly wonderful book.

I've seen many books in my life but not one as good and wholesome as Jim the Boy. After reading the few reviews saying it's suitable only for children I felt I must disagree with them and agree with the majority saying how wonderful it is. Jim the Boy is a heart warming tale for everyone. True, it is suitable for children but it's also a book that you as an adult can read without being disgusted by the language and graphic details most authors use today. What a few would call suitable only for children I feel is calling as an adult. It is a tale so clean and simple that it makes one yearn for more. Jim the boy is a book that is for everyone and will quickly become a classic, rivaling Charlotte's Web and Where the Red Fern Grows. Keep writing Mr. Earley and Thank you for Jim the Boy.

Tony Earley's novel Jim the Boy is simply the best novel I have read so far this year. Its beautifully shaped chapters, wonderfully spare language, clearly wrought characters, and heart breaking poignancy, show real craft. I can't wait to re-read it, savour it, and share it.