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Title: Sweet Read!
Review: Jim the Boy by Tony Earley is a sweet novel set in North Carolina during the late 1920's. Unlike other books set in the South of recent memory, though, this book doesn't describe an abused young man or a dysfunctional family but rather one of great strength.Although Jim's father dies only a matter of days before he was born, Jim is raised by his mother and three uncles who never married. Throughout the book, it is these men, who earn their livelihood from farming, who teach Jim some of life's greatest lessons. From learning how to hoe a field to confronting a firends devestating illness to seeing the grandfather he never knew as this old man lays dying, we as readers journey along as Jim experiences life between his tenth and eleventh birthday.Reminiscent of the equally lyrical style found in Plainsong by Kent Haruf, this book is a pleasant read for a summer's day.
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