We like to think youth is a simpler time than adulthood, small town life than the big city, or the 1940s than the 2010s, but The Blue Star blows those fallacies/fantasies out of the water. What could be more fraught with hazard than love in any age? Or war, conscientious objection, and race relations?
Similarly, who could be under more pressure (peer or otherwise) than a high school senior or a pregnant teen? Who's life is more at risk than an impoverished, beautiful woman? Who is more dangerous than a powerful, jealous man?
There is little of the boy Jim's charm in the teenager he became, except at his most awkward moment late in the book the the kitchen with his girlfriend's mother. Parts are very strange (Jim's dream/vision during the truck ride up the mountain with Bucky's coffin, conversations with Dennis Deane).
A discussion question asked whether Jim was our favorite character in the novel, and why or why not. I'd have to say not, because, as in the earlier novel, the uncles stand out. Here are men who've passed through all that teenage angst, know themselves, are assured of their place in society, and accepting of their responsibilities. They have honor -- a virtue that we barely recognize.
Jim is just learning what love costs the beloved. In this sense, The Blue Star is anti-romance, and maybe that's the male perspective shining through. A worthy perspective.
3 comments:
I don't like teenage boy angst - Angela's Ashes was a bit much, in my opinion - so I returned this to the library without reading it. But thanks for the review, which saved me the time of figuring that out myself!
On the other hand, I just read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and though there was poverty, misery, and sin, overall it was hopeful. It was a much better coming-of-age story, but then I'm always partial to book-loving protagonists!
I have Jim the Boy AND Tree Grows in Brooklyn on my TBR list, but thanks to this review I'll probably skip Blue Star.
Oh, now I feel badly! It's still a worthwhile book, not too long, and beautifully written. It was definitely an improvement on Stiff, and not as "yucky" as Angela's Ashes. Recommendation: read Jim the Boy and The Blue Star in quicker succession than we did; I forgot a lot about the earlier book.
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