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“Jim the Boy is a delight. A sweet, graceful novel that charms the reader with marvelous language, honest emotion, and authentic characters who are no less human, no less complex, for being sincere and straightforward, and good. As his short stories have already shown, Tony Earley is a wonderful writer.”
— Alice McDermott, National Book Award–winning author of Charming Billy
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“A radiant, knowing, pitch-perfect parable of childhood…Mr. Earley may not have invented the coming-of-age novel, but he streamlines and reawakens the genre with this swift, lovely book.”
— New York Times
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“Childhood innocence doesn’t crop up much these days in serious fiction…Jim the Boy blithely and successfully counters this trend…Seen through Jim’s eyes, everything that happens to him seems strange and somehow magical.”
— Time
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“A starkly sweet story…Its arrival on the current American literary landscape is somewhat akin to a rainbow appearing over an industrial park. Next to the woes and grit of much of contemporary American fiction, Tony Earley’s first novel feels stunned by innocence—uncluttered, untainted, focused only upon capturing a particularly purity of experience.”
— Boston Globe
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“It’s a testament to the resonant simplicity of Earley’s style that you’d never imagine laughing at any of these country folk for their simple ways. They’re tinged with the kind of lyricism that almost accidentally bubbles forth from people who always attempt honesty.”
— Austin Chronicle
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“When I find a good book, I get up (literally) and dance around the living room. Tony Earley’s Jim the Boy made me dance. It’s an oddly wonderful period piece…marvelous prose from a writer who has a crystalline memory of what it’s like to be a kid.”
— Seattle Times
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“A latter-day classic of children’s fiction.”
— AV Club
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“Jim the Boy is a lovely, meticulous work—a song of innocence and (eventually) experience, delivered with just a hint of North Carolina accent.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review
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“A deceptively gentle, nostalgic look at childhood during an era when life was by turns harsh and hopeful. Jim is a real boy who can be selfish and stubborn and then determined and giving. Earley offers an understated, poetic tribute to those families whose pride in and love for one another helped them face hard times.”
— Booklist