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Jim the Boy: A Novel
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Jim the Boy: A Novel
Unavailable
Jim the Boy: A Novel
Audiobook5 hours

Jim the Boy: A Novel

Written by Tony Earley

Narrated by L. J. Ganser

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Both delightful and wise, Jim the Boy brilliantly captures the pleasures and fears of youth at a time when America itself was young and struggling to come into its own.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 1, 2005
ISBN9781594834608
Unavailable
Jim the Boy: A Novel

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Reviews for Jim the Boy

Rating: 3.9490291223300975 out of 5 stars
4/5

206 ratings19 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "Jim the Boy" is a sort of novel told in short stories. The stories all take place within one year of Jim's life. His father died ten days before he was born, and he lives with is mother, and for the most part his three unmarried uncles, who are all fathers to him. Each tale is poignant and beautifully told, with an air that leaves the reader always knowing there is a little more to the story that is left to the imagination. I'm not sure if the book is intended for adults or adolescents, but it would be completely appropriate for either. Each audience would probably read the book on a different level.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An extremely well-written, gentle story of Jim Glass, a 10-year old boy growing up in the town of Aliceville, North Carolina during the Depression. Jim lives with his mother and three bachelor uncles after his father's death by heart failure at the young age of 23. The book explores Jim's relationship with his family, and his burgeoning awareness of the world beyond his family's property. An endearing cast of characters round out what is a good and wholesome story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very sweet quick read about a young boy coming of age in a small town in NC during the 1920's. Jim grapples with going to a new school, territorial kids from other towns, the harsh realities of the Depression, sickness, living with his single mother and among his 3 uncles since his father died a week prior to his birth, and coming to grips with his own heritage, as ugly as that may have been. A nice simple approach to the writing allows us to go on this journey with Jim, and beautifully captures what it can feel like to be 10 and 11. Much love and support from his family gently teach him that the world is far from perfect, things do not always go how you want, but within us all is the strength and wisdom to figure out the right thing to do if we can only learn to find it. Charming little vignettes reveal that the world is so much very bigger than Jim ever realized, and may wish was not so.......as with all of us! Nicely done!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lovely, evocative and beautifully understated novel. It hovers on the edge of precious but never crosses that line. The protagonist is an utterly believable 10-year-old boy, and all of his observations ring true.

    Re-read, in preparation for the sequel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story of Jim McBride whose father died at his birth. He is raised by his mother and three uncles. He learns many of life's lesson from his uncles. The book is a poignant look at growing up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very interesting book that reminds me of the best books of my youth.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    JIM THE BOY is a slight, sweet tale, told in a voice as true as childhood itself. Perhaps its most important lesson is that the word "father" has countless meanings, all of them important. While this may not exactly be the "great American novel," I enjoyed Tony Earley's simple story of a Depression-era southern boyhood immensely. It has an ageless appeal that will span generations. Well done.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was very much an "eh" read to me. I certainly didn't dislike it, but neither did I fall in love with the characters, the scenery, the plot... anything. I liked some characters, but those characters were the ones who seemed the most glossed over. In all fairness, the character I wanted to know the most about would not have helpful in the "lesson" of the novel: the world is large, but that no matter how small you feel, you're still a large part of the world to someone. In order to learn that the world is large, characters have to come and go... the character I found the most interesting (Whitey, who proposes to Jim's mother and is rejected) has to move out of the scene... and this teaches Jim a lesson, right?The ending was fairly pat, even for a YA novel. I don't know that I had expected anything else, given the majority of the book, but I think I held out a little bit of hope. All in all, it was a good read for someone interested in coming of age novels set in a specific time frame (Great Depression era) and locale (small North Carolina town). For a reader drawn to powerfully written characters rather than flowery descriptions of surroundings, it likely will do for you what it did for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a lovely story of a young boy growing up in the Depression era, in a small town in North Carolina. Jim is being raised by his mother and his uncles, and the story reflects the deep love amongst them all. I liked the book for several reasons, including, the notion that cross-cultural issues arise between the closest neighbors, such as the "hill people" and the "town people", and that although divorce may not have been common at that time, but there were still alternative family structures. I guess the story ends up feeling timeless. I look forward to reading this book with grandchildren someday.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jim is a young boy, heading into his teenaged years, who lives with his mother and three uncles in a rural North Carolina town during the Great Depression. It is a gentle coming of age novel in a more innocent time. There are no major cataclysmic events driving the plot. It is just (as if it could be "just" anything) a lovely, almost nostalgic look at a family and a place. My bookclub chose this book on one member's recommendation and because it is set not far from where we all live and we were split on how we felt about it. I would liken it to the creek meandering through my backyard. Small and seemingly insignificant, it brings wonderful wildlife to our backdoor and offers a quiet, peaceful and contemplative place to escape the street out front. This book felt the same way to me. One of the reviews on the back cover compares it to a folk ballad and that strikes me as appropriate too. This very quietness or ballad like feel was problematic for some of the readers in our group. But I appreciated the poignancy that is rare nowadays and I look forward to the newly released sequel that will let me slip back into Jim's life and coming adulthood.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Upon first look, a simple and uplifting book about a boy growing up in South Carolina during the depression. Once read, however, the complexities woven into the simple fabric of this book can be seen. A fine, fast read and a nice discussion piece as well. This book leaves you feeling clean and true.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jim the Boy follows the life of Jim Glass in a rural North Carolina town from the day he turns 10 till the day he turns 11 (1934-5). It is a coming -of-age story without flash and dash, no affectations, just a simple story with the right mixture of dramatic turns and homespun wisdom. Jim learns the not- so- pleasant history of his father's family on nearby Lynn's Mountain, a family from which he'd been estranged at the time of his sudden death before Jim's birth. During this year, Jim also faces the unpleasant possibility of his mother finding him a step-father (and the comic involvement of her three brother's, Jim's uncle's, in her affairs). And Jim's baseball buddy is struck down by polio and forces Jim to face issues of honor, friendship and mortality. What lifts this coming-of-age story above most others is the voice of its narrative. Rare is the book whose every line exhales an era, a way of life, and a family of characters that make you completely happy that you've read them. If you're looking for a book with which to settle into a hammock, sip some iced tea and disappear for a while, Jim the Boy is what you're looking for. Here's a taste of what you're in for:"Jim turned and stared back at the head of his row. He could spit that far. He looked in the other direction at the end of the row in the distance. The woods along the river seemed as far away as the moon. The uncles, as far ahead of Jim as they were, had hoed less than a fourth of the way to the end of the field. Jim didn't see how he could ever make it to the end of his row, much less hoe the one beside it. He had started a journey he knew he could not finish. He felt a sob gather up in his stomach like a cloud.That Jim felt like crying made him angry. He attacked the ground with his hoe as if he were killing snakes. He struck almost blindly at the morning glories and grass and clover, but in his fury chopped down another stalk of corn. The sob that had been waiting in his stomach climbed up out of his throat and hung in the air for a second, a small, inconsequential sound, heard only by him."
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Homey story about a North Carolina boy growing up in a town that is also starting to grow up. The boy's friend ends up getting polio the day that Ty Cobb may have come to town and may have seen the boys playing catch outside the train's window.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just finished this sweet little book last night, and I really loved it. It's the story of a year in the life of Jim Glass, a young boy growing up on a farm in North Carolina during the depression. Jim's father died the week before Jim was born, so he's being raised by his mother and his three bachelor farmer uncles.I'm not really sure what the cockles of one's heart are, but after reading this book, I think mine were warmed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have developed a serious reader's crush on Tony Earley. This is the first BOOK of his I've read/listened to, after a volume including a novella and short stories.

    I have never been bored. He has an exquisite sense of timing and mood and moves on at the right time. He has things to say, but he uses his characters, their speech and behavior, to transmit them. No preachy voice, just a storyteller.

    Short story or novel, I care about his people. When the tale is told I am sad they are leaving.

    His work is sharp, acerbic, and God love him, is not couched in the over-stuffed armchairs of academia or even the city. There are corn fields and coonhounds and rough dangerous tussles in the back alleys of towns, where you can end up just as dead as in Chicago.

    People get sick and they get better or die. Like life.

    I love this guy and can't wait to go a new place with him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not quite as good as it's sequel, but very accomplished nonetheless.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is a sweetness to the story of ten year old Jim Glass. In the prologue readers learn Jim was born a week after his father passed of a heart attack while working in the fields. Even though he never knew his father, young Jim is not without male guidance as he is surrounded by three protective uncles. His mother's brothers keep an eye on Jim as well as their too-young-to-be-a-widow sister, Cissy. Earley colors Jim the Boy's characters with real life angst and everything that goes with it. For Jim it's immature prejudices and naive hubris amidst competition and companionship with classmates. Growing up in depression era North Carolina, Jim assumes that his house in town is better than those of the mountain boys yet learns differently when he visits a friend with polio. Meanwhile, his mother Cissy struggle to do what is right by Jim. In her heart she wants to remain faithful to a man dead ten years despite needing to give Jim a true father from which she feels he should learn life's harder lessons. One of my favorite parts of the story was when the uncles wake Jim in the middle of the night to witness electricity coming to their little town. While light bulbs chased away the shadows. At first Jim was excited but then he felt the change made the world a little darker; an interesting perception for a boy so young.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Jim Glass turns ten as this novel opens. It is June 1934 and Jim and his mother live with his Uncle Zeno, right next door to his two other uncles, Al and Coran. The men farm, operate a grist mill, cotton gin and feed store. Jim’s mother, Cissy, is their sister and keeps house for them. Jim’s father died suddenly a week before Jim was born. He died without ever reconciling with his father, Amos Glass, who is a mountain man and former convict. As a result, Jim has never met his grandfather.

    Earley’s debut novel is quiet, peaceful and yet powerful. I think my heart rate actually slowed while reading; it was that gentle. And yet there are heartaches in the novel, and some frightening situations. The story may focus on one boy, his family and friends but the lessons conveyed are universal. We all make mistakes; we might have selfish or mean thoughts but can overcome those impulses; jealousy can poison a relationship; when we succeed it’s frequently because of the help of others; even adults can marvel at new discoveries; doing what is right may be hard but is part of growing up.

    Jim is a wonderful character. He starts the novel feeling so BIG now that he writes his age in double digits “just like the uncles.” He is eager to grow up and take on the responsibilities of adulthood, but his first experience in the field shows him to be still a child – easily distracted by an interesting bug or even a rock that might be an arrowhead. He has always been a star pupil but when a new, larger school is built new students from surrounding areas come in and suddenly he has competition. Jim is stunned to discover that “a hillbilly” might be better at some things than he is. Accompanying Uncle Zeno to buy a horse, he leaves “the boundaries of home” for the first time and begins to witness the effects of the Great Depression. Slowly he becomes aware that instead of being big, he is really rather small, “I’m just a boy.” Perhaps, but he is a boy growing towards manhood.

    Earley’s writing is luminous. There were several passages that I read over and over they were so evocative. For example, this passage describing early morning:
    The world at that early hour seemed newly made, unfinished; the air, stills wet with dew, an invention thought up that morning…. The sky, in a moment Jim didn’t notice until the moment had passed, turned blue, as if it had never tried the color before and wasn’t sure anyone would like it.

    On his mother’s grief:
    The death of Jim’s father had broken something inside her that had not healed. She pulled the heaviness that had once been grief behind her like a plow.

    On seeing the ocean for the first time:
    The sand was burning his feet. Once they reached the beach the sand was cooler, but the roar of the water was fiercer than it had been up on the dune. Jim could taste the salty water, broken up and falling through the air.

    On the first day of school:
    The previous morning had smelled only like summer, like dew and grass and crops growing in the fields. But this morning the air bore the suggestion of books and pencils and chalky erasers, the pronounced end of long, slow days.

    And a sunset:
    Jim and the uncles watched the last yellow light of the day slide up the mountain toward the bald, dragging evening behind it. When the light went out of their faces, they turned and watched it retreat up the peak, where at the summit a single tree flared defiantly before going dark … All but the brightest greens had drained out of the world, leaving in their stead an array of somber blues.

    This short gem of a novel should be read by more people. It is simply marvelous.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. 11/15/09Coming of Age in North CarolinaAlthough 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, 2008) are none of the above. Technically speaking, they’re not young adult novels, either: Earley has described “Jim the Boy” as “a children’s book for adults.” Still, many teen readers will love these books, especially those who have enjoyed Richard Peck’s gentle, witty books featuring the inimitable Grandma Dowdel (“A Year Down Yonder,” “A Long Way From Chicago”). Jim Glass, the hero of both books, was born in the mythical town of Aliceville North Carolina in 1924, just a week after his father dropped dead of a heart attack. And while his father’s absence is part of the fabric of Jim’s life, his story is not one of loss but of abundance, even in the midst of the Depression. He is lovingly raised by his mother and his three bachelor uncles: Zeno, Al and Coran. The story begins with Jim’s tenth birthday: “During the night something like a miracle happened: Jim’s age grew an extra digit.” Over the course of the novel, Jim befriends a “mountain boy” at their new school; has a near-encounter with the baseball player Ty Cobb; and in one magical scene, witnesses the introduction of electricity on Christmas Eve. By the end, Jim gains a new appreciation of the grandfather who had rejected him, the uncles who embraced him, and his own identity. In Early’s follow-up work, “The Blue Star,” Jim is a 17-year old senior in high school, and the country is on the brink of World War II. He is the same thoughtful, caring boy he was at 10, but life is inevitably more complicated. He is in love with a half-Cherokee girl, Chrissie, engaged to marry a boy who joined the Navy just before Pearl Harbor. Their relationship is complicated by the fact that Chrissie’s family is virtually indentured to her fiancé’s wealthy family. “You get bad feelings about a lot of things,” Jim says to Chrissie one day. “There’s a lot in the world to feel bad about,” she replies. “I guess I never thought of it that way,” Jim says, “I think there’s a lot in the world to feel good about.” And there are a lot of things to feel good about in these evocative coming-of-age novels. Recommended for teens and adults alike.Sara Latta, Champaign, is the author of eleven books for children. Although she specializes in writing about science and medicine, she enjoys reading a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing and is currently working on a novel for young adult readers as well as a series of books about forensic science.