A review by kelseywelsey
Jim the Boy by Tony Earley

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.