Jim the Boy

The Calvin Festival of Writing and Faith last monthintroduced me to a number of authors, many of whom were new to me. One suchwriter was Tony Earley, whose terrific (and short) debut novel, Jim the Boy, I just finished.

Jim Glass is a ten-year-old NorthCarolina boy living in 1934, in Depression-era Aliceville, to be exact. His daddy died before he was born, so the boyand his mother live with her three brothers. These men are to Jim as the tin man, scarecrow,and cowardly lion are to Dorothy—protective, nurturing companions journeyingwith him and offering casual wisdom along the way.  

            The authorhas a master’s touch with social detail, describing a boy with polio, a worldfilled with moonshiners, and a school classroom with “large, colorful maps ofthe United States, the Confederacy, and the Holy Land during the time of Jesus.”And even better than Earley’s  ability to create a setting is his believable main character.

Jimthe Boy is a coming-of-age story in which Jim faces the sorts of situationsthat make him realize, “I sure can be selfish,” and “The world isn’t so safeafter all” and “I’m not the center of the universe.” In one scene, for example,Jim is riding in his Uncle Al’s truck and “two thoughts came to [him] at once,joined by a thread of amazement: he thought, People live here, and he thought,They don't know who I am. At that moment the world opened up around Jim likehands that, until that moment, had been cupped around him; he felt very small,almost invisible, in the open air of their center, but knew that the handswould not let him go.”

            I love it when a writer leaves mesaying, “You, too? I thought I was the only one.” I had the same realization that“it’s not about me” at about age ten while riding in our family’s car. I sawanother family in their car pass us, and I realized they had never heard of us,of me. The realization stunned me.Earley took me right back to that moment, and others like it, revealing hisinsight into the human soul. 

            The storyis a solid mix of innocence meeting real-world situations that emerge naturallyfrom the era in which Earley set them.  Theplot meanders like a pleasant creek taking the reader from anecdote to anecdote…  about the town’s name, of showing offwith a baseball, of a trip to buy a horse that turns out to be a lesson invice, about a greased-pole contest that brings Jim face-to-face with his ownruthlessness, his mother’s decision to remain unmarried, the arrival ofelectricity in town, and a trip to tell Jim’s wicked, dying grandfathergoodbye—to name a few. And these stories within a story lead readers to a satisfying destination. 
             The New York Times Book Review concluded, "It's not a big book, just a good one and in this instance 'good' is higher praise than 'great'." I agree. Jim the Boy is a terrific read for ten-year-olds of all ages.