Jim the Boy

Set in the tiny town of Aliceville, North Carolina early in the twentieth century when electricity was stringing its way east to west, Jim the Boy is a luminous portrait of ten-year-old Jim and his life with his widowed mother and his three uncles.Jim the Boy gives readers a glimpse at a bygone era. Jim plays baseball, follows "the uncles" around, and climbs greased poles at the school fair, ecstatically beating out his best friend. Deftly entering the world of this ten-year-old, Earley masterfully explores Jim's growing awareness of the complex world that shelters him. A profound act of historical and psychological imagination, Jim the Boy is a simple story you won't be able to forget.At once 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.