Three stars is about as high as one goes for contemporary fiction--we're not running a review service here, so late and early we're forced into choosing between the best of everything and the best of what's right now: those two bodies may or may not overlap, but probably do not. Anyway, I've just seen Tree of Life, which is about boyhood in Texas, and thought I'd come back to this book, which is about adolescence in North Carolina. The two share a belief in the sensory world: the Malick film obsesses over each and every detail it can find; the Earley book builds a store of what's happened in the best naturalist sense of things. I wouldn't stand too far away from either. We're in it up to our necks. The Blue Star reads more easily than Tree of Life views, but the difficulty of each deceives the core senses it awakens: of a profound self in the midst of a very large, almost unknowable world. ---It's not until the end of The Blue Star that the wonder of what's shaped an individual spills out in sense and emotion, and is written in one of the best concluding paragraphs I've read in a very long while. Jim Glass’ senior year was supposed to be simple. But his life in a small North Carolina town in 1941 has become anything but simple. He is supposed to be with Norma, but he doesn’t love her – or right now even like her. He wants to be with Chrissie, but she is dating a guy Jim hates who has left for the Navy. On top of that, Chrissie won’t even look in his direction. For Jim, time may be short because the winds of war are blowing and he will need his family to guide him through life and politics in a small town that he doesn’t understand.“The weather matched Jim’s mood perfectly. He found it a good day to labor under the almost public burden of a not-quite-secret unrequited love. His friends, both the guys on the steps and the girls who pretended to be offended by their existence, had begun to tease him about Christine Steppe – which genuinely puzzled Jim because he had spoken of his feelings about Chrissie to no one, and certainly not to Dennis Deane, who these days, when the bus from Lynn’s Mountain pulled up in front of the school, launched into a ridiculous, mincing recitation of “Jim and Chrissie sitting in a tree” that even Jim had to admit was funny.”The Blue Star follows Jim Glass – who is introduced in Jim the Boy (2000) – through his senior year of high school. Earley does a masterful job of immersing us in the rural American of the early 1940’s. Images of the town and townsfolk of Aliceville are crisp and clear, bringing to life that bygone era of American when it was about to lose its innocence for good.The characters of The Blue Star feel authentic and the writing really allows us to feel who they are. However, none of the characters, including Jim, ever really surprise us. They are all pretty normal people leading pretty normal lives – and maybe that is Earley’s whole point. There is a soft, simplicity to his writing style that makes the story warm and comfortable to curl up next to the fireplace with.The story itself follows a classic love triangle of boy pursuing the girl across the tracks rather than the obvious choice who is hung up on him. But the relationships lack much emotional angst beyond the three participants themselves. The rest of the town seems oblivious to what is happening, leading to little tension or depth to the story. The ending is also a bit trite, if not unexpected. Even so, The Blue Star is an enjoyable, comfortable read that serves as a bit of an antidote to high stakes novels with cliff hanger endings. It is slower-paced literature that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is – a story of a boy falling in love. If that is something you are looking for, The Blue Star will serve you quite well.
What do You think about La Stella Blu (2010)?
A sweet follow-up to Jim the Boy. About his high school years during World War II.
—DOMINQUE
Not as good as Jim the Boy, but a nice story aobut Jim the teenager.
—misstery13
Every bit as magical as Jim the Boy. Hoping for Jim the Man.
—marp1179
