Scan barcode
kelseywelsey's review against another edition
3.0
A year in the life of a 10 year old boy during The Depression, the perfect mixture of innocence and coming-of-age; a delicate balance of light and dark. Understated but beautiful. Lots of great metaphor. Earley has a way with words that looks and feels simple but that mastery is precisely what had me rereading sentences throughout the book.
I especially loved Book II: Jim Leaves Home: The Wide Sea where buzzards grab the air with their wings, climbing the sky; fish vanish as if made of light; and Jim with feet in the ocean for the first time, trying to feel Belgium, instead feels the water writing strange words on his feet.
I especially loved Book II: Jim Leaves Home: The Wide Sea where buzzards grab the air with their wings, climbing the sky; fish vanish as if made of light; and Jim with feet in the ocean for the first time, trying to feel Belgium, instead feels the water writing strange words on his feet.
melvankomen's review against another edition
5.0
A lovely, spare, wonderfully written book. I admired the writer's craft and enjoyed a novel at the same time -- a rare combination.
cdehlert's review
2.0
This is a novel about a boy growing up in a small North Carolina town in the 1930s with his mom and uncles. It was okay and a fast read but there wasn't much of a plot.
windhover's review against another edition
4.0
Let me put it this way. I totally agree with the reviews on the back of book. It is not anything groundbreaking or genre-shifting or anything. But it made me happy. It is sweet and charming. It has lots of the things I like about literary fiction without being depressing or violent or obscene. And that was a delightful surprise.
sandraagee's review against another edition
4.0
Set in North Carolina during the Great Depression, this is a sort of coming of age story as 10-year-old Jim becomes aware of the wide world around him. The story is beautifully told and Jim's family and friends (especially Uncle Zeno, Penn, and Jim's long-dead father) are interesting and well-drawn. There isn't much of a central conflict and a resulting climas as it is resolved which may frustrate some readers. But if one does not mind the quiet, more poetic "climax" found on the story's final pages, this will be a worthwhile read.
phteven's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
wendyclinch's review against another edition
4.0
I re-read this book in anticipation of reading Tony Early's new book, The Blue Star, and found it just as enjoyable as I did the first time. A very simple story, no sex or violence, about a young, fatherless boy growing up in a small southern town in the 1920's. Very sweet. Nicely captures the innocence and confusion of childhood.
anitaofplaybooktag's review against another edition
3.0
I am very torn about what rating to give this book. The story is about a young boy, Jim, who is being raised by a single mother and her three brothers during the depression era in the South. On one hand, it is very well written. Earley has a masterful and evocative writing style. You can picture everything he describes, and his writing is very fresh. He just brings the story of Jim to life in a beautiful way. There is nothing about the story that is forced or contrived. It's a simple tale, and you can finish this book in a day or two (I know because I did, and I'm not an especially fast reader).
So why not five stars? Or at least four?
Well, I just felt like the story was a little too simple for my taste. It is a tale you could easily read aloud to a child. It could end up being a classic, but it really seems more like a series of short stories about Jim's life, and somehow the plotting was just too simple to really make me say "Wow!" at the end. The narrative does move along at a nice pace, but at the end, I just sort felt like, "oh, that was a lovely little tale.". And "a lovely little tale" just doesn't make me want to give it 5 stars.
This book is not one I'd choose, but my face to face book club is reading it as part of All Rochester Reads, where the whole town reads the same book. I just prefer more complexity to my books and characters. Jim is well developed, but no one else really is. It really just seemed like a platform to show how well Earley can evoke images without using a single stale word. Good for him! Now, if he'd just take it to another level plot wise, I'd think he was truly a masterful genius.
So why not five stars? Or at least four?
Well, I just felt like the story was a little too simple for my taste. It is a tale you could easily read aloud to a child. It could end up being a classic, but it really seems more like a series of short stories about Jim's life, and somehow the plotting was just too simple to really make me say "Wow!" at the end. The narrative does move along at a nice pace, but at the end, I just sort felt like, "oh, that was a lovely little tale.". And "a lovely little tale" just doesn't make me want to give it 5 stars.
This book is not one I'd choose, but my face to face book club is reading it as part of All Rochester Reads, where the whole town reads the same book. I just prefer more complexity to my books and characters. Jim is well developed, but no one else really is. It really just seemed like a platform to show how well Earley can evoke images without using a single stale word. Good for him! Now, if he'd just take it to another level plot wise, I'd think he was truly a masterful genius.