He and his friends were it." Their reign, however, is pretty benign. As new seniors, Jim and his buddies "had ruled Aliceville School for less than a month," Earley writes, "but now held this high ground more or less comfortably. It's October of 1941, and though war is raging in Europe and Asia, it's still possible for Americans to pretend they might sit out the conflict. The warm sunlight on his face seemed to remind him of something - but he couldn't explain what - and some vague but pleasant longing filled his chest." As poignant as these moments are, a character who feels too many ineffable things can eventually excite our effable distrust.
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Despite the strict emotional code of high school, he feels "tempted to weep with some mysterious, nostalgic joy. He can seem like some undiscovered, rural superhero: Sensitive Teen. In fact, that point gets laid on a bit thick this time around.
The key to Jim is that he's an ordinary teenager who's endowed with an extraordinary consciousness of the ineffable sadness and beauty of life. He's decent and contemplative, concerned about others' feelings and his own shortcomings, suspended awkwardly between adolescence and adulthood. We've waited a long time for a sequel to that story, and during those eight years, Jim the boy has grown into Jim the young man, the sort of person you'd expect from the first novel. Was it a YA book? The juvenile jacket cover - retained, unfortunately, for this sequel - seemed aimed at middle-schoolers, but we worried about scaring off adult readers with that label, and we suspected it was too slow for teens anyhow (no rape, school shooting or bone cancer - the unholy trinity of YA lit). The problem concerned us because we cared so much.
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Newspapers ran adulatory author profiles of the modest Vanderbilt professor, and there was talk about the advent of a new classic.Īt the time, I remember consulting with several reviewers around the country about how to categorize Jim the Boy. I thought it was one of the best books of the year I tried to read chapters to my family but kept getting too choked up. His short stories in Harper's and the New Yorker had already attracted enthusiastic praise, but this first novel about a sensitive 10-year-old in a small North Carolina town inspired ferocious devotion. Newspapers ran adulatory author profiles of the modest Vanderbilt professor, and there In 2000, Tony Earley published a delicate, daringly uneventful novel called Jim the Boy.
In 2000, Tony Earley published a delicate, daringly uneventful novel called Jim the Boy. This is a timeless and moving story of discovery, loss, and growing up, proving why Tony Earley's writing "radiates with a largeness of heart".more With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made Jim the Boy a favorite novel for readers nationwide, Tony Earley has fashioned another nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time-making it again even more real than our own day. Jim vows to win Chrissie's heart in his absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven and gives a young man's emotions a grown man's gravity. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw's girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the navy on the eve of war. Jim Glass has fallen in love, as only a teenage boy can fall in love, with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Now a teenager, Jim returns in another tender and wise story of young love on the eve of World War II. Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious 10-year-old at the heart of Tony Earley's bestseller Jim the Boy. Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love Jim Glass has fallen in love with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Jim Glass has fallen in love with his classmate Chrissie Steppe.
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