| Title | : | The Outside Boy |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0451229487 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780451229489 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published May 31, 2010 |
As Christy's exposure to a different life causes him to question who he is and where he belongs, the answer may lie with an old newspaper photograph and a long-buried family secret that could change his life forever...
The Outside Boy Reviews
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THE OUTSIDE BOY is an oddity in the post-post modern world: an old-fashioned, grab you by the heartstrings, well-written read.
Are you a jaded sort? Like your novels rough about the edges? Sneer at the slightest whiff of sentimentality? Maybe you'd best stay inside, then, with your video games, your FaceBooks, your tweeting and your texting. This is a book where just being outdoors can set the mood, where character is king, and where plot plays 3rd or 4th fiddle somewhere in the back of the barn.
The protagonist is an 11-year-old by the name of Christy Hurley. You might cry foul because the novel is written in the 1st-person POV and Christy's observations and thought processes are often heady indeed. Anticipating this, author Jeanine Cummins asks that you suspend your disbelief and give her your hand nonetheless. She will take you back in time. She will show you the Pavee Gypsy life as it existed in its twilight in Ireland. To do this, she throws a series of set pieces at the reader, starting with a compelling scene where Christy's grandda helps to deliver a breech colt in a barn. You get writing like so:
"Grandda was at the back end of the mare now, and there was a lot more blood than was normal. I dumped the iodine into the cup and lifted the colt's cord stump. It was sticky and warm, and the colt made a breathy mewl sound when I lifted the cord, but I couldn't tell if it was a pain or a comfort sound. I winced when I dipped the stump into the iodine, but the colt roused hisself and finally lifted his head, like a crow fluffing his feathers. He rolled onto his chest, and stuck his scrawny legs out at awkward angles beneath him."
Christy knows his mom died birthing him, so the colt scene is an echo of sorts. In fact, as you move through the book and then finish it, you find other echoes and foreshadowing, all a credit to the book's careful design. Episodic riffs of note include Christy and his cousin Martin working toward their First Holy Communion in a church that actually accepts them and Christy falling in love with a rich but game girl named Amy. Then, at the end, a sub-plot erupts at the surface and drives the book home quickly and dramatically to its denouement. Wonderful ending, in my opinion -- and those words don't come cheap. Even the classic writers struggle with endings. Cummins' is a gem.
So, if you're not too pessimistic or "worldly" these days, you might give THE OUTSIDE BOY a try. I mean, does the theme song from LASSIE bring a tear to your eye? That would be a good indicator that this is a book for you. It's a book about being a kid, about feeling unloved and wanting to be loved, about being an outsider and trying to come to terms with a world that has little sympathy for outsiders. It won me over in the end, despite the cargo of doubts I had in tow. But I like coming of age books -- and I'm a sucker for poignancy, too. My weakness, then. One that, in this book's case, led to my gain. -
"My mam and dad had fell in love over books, over sunlight and soil and simplicity, and I was the product of their bold, impossible love. I was the freest, happiest moment of their lives..." (354)
I fell in love with this novel, unexpectedly, from the very beginning....tumbled into its honesty and beauty unawares, captured in Cummins' intricately yet seemingly-effortlessly crafted story...I have read very few books written my female authors tackling a male narrator's voice that I have found successful, but Jeanine Cummins achieves this feat with incredible precision and authenticity...Christy Hurley, the 12-year-old protagonist is a boy whom the reader cannot help but love, respect, ache for, cheer for, empathize with...The story is simple enough-- a coming of age tale of a search for an identity hidden, and for the assertion of a budding adolescent self. Set in 1959 in Ireland, the story showcases the author's commitment to accuracy of detail (most apparent in her descriptions of landscape, and in the voice of her speaker) but even more, the novel is breathtaking in the way in which Cummins' manages to subtly, unobtrusively, naturally, bring true poetry into the language of "Outside Boy."
From its dramatic beginning with the death of Christy's (Christopher's) granda, the reader is brought into the slowly-dying world of the wandering tinkers of Ireland-past and quickly, she is enchanted by this life, longing for nothing more or less for herself...Early in the text, Christy describes his own love for a life "outside," one that is free and untethered-- something he feels on a physical level:
"I flexed, instinctively. That was always my response to thinking about doorways and walls and ceilings. To stretch out the muscles of my body, to let them unfold. To feel the openness of the free air all around me, unbound. That was the purest form of reassurance-- it was elemental." (25)
This way of being is constantly in tension in the novel with the lives of those around Christy and his family, people who live in houses and lead conventionally rooted lives...And nowhere is this tension so amplified as in Christy himself, who in spite of himself sometimes finds himself coveting the features of this "normalcy." The reader discovers that there is more to this impulse in Christy than mere casual envy or desire, and this is linked closely to his investigation into the mystery of his own past, as a search for his own identity...
The feelings of adolescence are raw in this story, raw and real and wonderful in their brutal and beautiful truth...I need to include this description of Christy's first kiss, just to give you a taste...
"And I opened my eyes just in time to see her stretching up toward me.
Slow, slow. Slow.
Tingles.
Loose joints. Dampness and movement. Softness. Stiffness. Her lips. They barely touched me, brushed me. Slow. And then: spinning. Goose pimples. Music-- I swear I hear a pipe organ. Oh. Shadowy, daytime stars. Stars! And that mad, rushy, dizzy, powerful scent of peeling, stripping oranges. Naked in their skins." (247)
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The novel is filled with fabulous characters, richly drawn...Christy's granda, even though he is only in a few scenes, plays an enormous role in shaping the young boy's view of the world--, his grandmother is a formidable but fiercely loving woman who buys Christy and his cousin Martin cowboy shirts (their first NEW clothes) for a birthday party---Martin himself who is a rascally lovable boy, Amy Witherspoon a.k.a. Fionnula Whippet, Christy's first love; and Jack (Christy's horse) and Fidel (his dog), a boy named "Beano", a nun Christy calls "Sister Hedgehog" fondly, and many more...
Without giving too much away, the story ends with some tragedy but with greater, emphatic JOY and hope...In discovering the truth of his past, Christy discovers all he needs to in order to be at peace with himself and his life...
"I had always been their choice, but now I was my own choice, too. I knew I was an outside boy..." (354)
READ THIS BOOK! -
I don't know how I found this wonderful debut novel. None of my GR friends have discovered it....yet. This is a coming of age story told by a 11 year old traveler, or gypsy as we would call him. I was hooked from the 1st chapter as young Christy helps his Granda deliver a foal. The characters are vivid and rich, and you will fall in love. Read a few of the many rave reviews, then get yourself a copy, ad prepare to be drawn in to this marvelous tale. Perfect reading for a long winters day. If you feel the dialect is a bit odd at first, don't give up, it grows on you, and gets easier as you go. I look forward to more from this talented author, and highly recommend to all my friends!
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I loved this book. It's about a culture I know nothing about-- Irish "travellers" or tinkers-- people who live outside and move from town to town. The plot is interesting and well-paced, and the writing absolutely lovely. I actually marked passages I liked the most to re-read later, which I rarely do. How Cummins manages to write from the POV of a 12 year old Irish boy in 1959 is beyond me.
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This was my second book by the author, Jeanine Cummins. She has an amazing gift. I absolutely loved American Dirt and now I am taken away with The Outside Boy! This is the story of an 11 year old gypsy boy who travels with his gypsy family along the fields and roads of Ireland. I guess one could call it a coming of age story. I Highly recommend it!
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This is the second book I’ve read by Cummins, the first being American Dirt, and I’m sensing that this author is very interested in people or groups living on the fringe of society. In this, we look at the world through the eyes of Christy, a 12 year old boy who is a Pavee traveler in Ireland. The travelers, commonly known as gypsies, are an old culture, but have been distrusted by mainstream culture, and this book puts you in their shoes. Cummins wrote some really beautiful prose in parts of the book and educated me about a people I had no knowledge of.
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Rating this book was is a challenge - it’s so well written, researched, the characters are compelling and the pavvy (gypsy) culture being on the fringe of society is very interesting.
Buuuut… I couldn’t connect with the book until I was about 2/3 through it. I struggled staying with it, and in to it. I didn’t want to DNF what is clear in my mind a good book.
I’m not sure if it was me, the timing, or the era/subject just not being my thing. I fully believe the 5 star reviews this book has received are well deserved, it’s just not for me. ✌🏻 -
After loving American Dirt, I tucked into another Jeanine Cummins - this one set in Ireland about a young gipsy boy. Some of the writing is through-the-roof good and I did really get a sense of what life as a traveller must be like. The plot gets a bit trite, sentimental and pretty implausible towards the second half of the book but still a great read.
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This is one of those books, where you're near the final chapter and you start turning the pages ever so slowly, because you just don't want the book to end. I just loved the characters, the sweetness and the poignant moments in this book. I needed a lovely book like this one at this time. Thank you, Jeanine Cummins.
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(4.5 stars) I love a good Irish tale and this book fit the bill, with a beautifully told story and colorful, memorable characters. A debut novel by the author who wrote the controversial book American Dirt, The Outside Boy tells the story of 12-year-old Christy Hurley, a much maligned “traveler” (gypsy) in Ireland in the 1950s. As the book opens, Christy is mourning his grandfather’s passing and obsessing over a newspaper clipping of the mother he never knew left to him by his grandfather. When Christy’s traveler family puts down anchors in order for Christy and his cousin Martin to be confirmed in the Catholic church, the truth behind his mother’s absence comes to light. This is a terrific book, made even better in audiobook by a great reader. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a well-written, good old-fashioned tale.
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My first exposure to Cummins' work was A Rip in Heaven, which was so compelling that I managed to finish in a day. At the time, I characterized the memoir to my friends as something that would re-sensitize you to the impact of crime. Cummins wrote with a kind of quiet ferocity that lended itself well to the account. We always hear about families' lives getting uprooted and destroyed in the crossfire of others' evil acts, but rarely do we get to read the victim's account of events in such a thorough way. A certain level of desensitization is almost necessary in order to cope with all of the suffering that you see people go through, but at the same time, it's not good to completely "numb out" and lose that essential empathy for others. Reading Cummins' memoir helped me to start rebuilding my deteriorating empathy at the time.
While The Outside Boy is not nearly as hard a read, Cummins portrays the grief that her characters go through in a way that's organic to their culture, their psychology, and their meager living conditions. I'll admit, I don't know much about 1950s Ireland, let alone the nomads that were discriminated there. But from my previous experience with Cummins, she's thorough when researching her subject matter. The fabric of story-reality never breaks apart with some hapless insertion of modern culture, whether it be with the peoples' ideologies or the introduction of certain cultural phenomena. The main characters are not simply paper cut-outs, or mere archetypes, but act in ways that are well-rounded, often delighting you by acting in ways that adhere to their character, but also breaking those molds in appropriate ways.
That being said, a lot of the other characters suffer in this regard because they're not developed to the same degree that the main family is. It's tough to make everyone interesting and varied, but it can be done. Naoki Urasawa, who is one of my favorite mangakas, manages to do this in all of his stories by taking characters whose roles are small and giving you the impression that they, too, could become main characters if given the chance. Not every side character has to shine or be given 100 pages of development, but they shouldn't just be tools that are only meant to push the main characters along.
As for the first-person perspective in the story, it can take some getting used to. Cummins uses a mix of old slang and proper English to create a more layered tone for the story, although the general lack of prosody tends to make for jarring phrases that prevent a smoother narrative style from happening. The narrator's sense of humor makes up for this in part, but I could never really shake the thought that Cummins' writing could've gone to new heights if she'd been willing to hone the main character's writing style some more.
There are also a lot of story threads that never see any resolution. The end of the book is more akin to the climax, where things are getting really good―and then it just ends. I like books where it leaves you satisfied yet speculative, but it appears that Cummins left a lot of story ideas unfinished because she didn't know where to take them (or simply ran out of space). She had all of the proper setup, all of the motives laid bare, and then she kind of just lets characters lose their presence over time. I suppose this is because she's writing what is essentially a pseudo-memoir here. In memoirs, not having people reappear in your story is quite normal, but in fiction it's a different ballgame. Even though this is a nomadic story wherein the theme is adhered to, failing to complete essential story threads is the sign of a tyro fiction writer. Where's book 2?, I thought to myself.
In terms of historical fiction, coming-of-age, and family drama, this book has a lot to offer. Its failures come from the inexperience of its author, whose strong suit is memoir. If the book had been lengthened to accommodate meaningful content, then this would have been a powerful entry, indeed. While there are powerful moments to be read within, there are only the rumblings of power in the distance, echoing back to tease you with what could have been, but never was. -
This book 😭 (and I never cry!)
While it felt long, and dare I say quite slow at times, The Outside Boy did manage to grab my heart right out of my chest. Due to it being told in first person from eleven year old Christy's perspective, I felt very close to him, and therefore understood his need for the truth. There are so many profound questions to unravel.
What is a home, if it's not four walls and an address?
The Pavee way is to live on the road, in their wagons, setting up camps every so often to find a bit of food and a little work. This way was so bred into Christy that even being indoors made him anxious. The walls and ceilings were suffocating compared to the big wide world outside. Although Christy felt enough love from his father and the extended family he traveled with, he was still quick to envy those large houses with well rooted families inside. Once they settled down long enough for him to attend school, Christy was soon realizing more and more differences between him and "rooted families". Attending a birthday party, for one, is something Christy had to navigate himself for the first time in this book. 💔
What is a mother to her child?
What a question, I know. But in Christy's life, his mother was nothing but a mystery, a large question mark that wouldn't go away. Christy had fully accepted his father's (short) recount of what had happened to his mother. But lately Christy is finding that this story has its holes, and he becomes consumed with getting answers. The hole in his heart where his mother should be is aching the whole time, and I ached along with him. You could tell every last detail he did have of her, no matter how small, was intricately woven into his sense of self, and his perception of his own identity. Starting to crack open the truth after all these years threatens to alter Christy's view of himself.
What else? This book had such a wonderful, WONDERFUL depiction of religion. When Christy started attending Saint Malachy's National School, run mostly by priests and nuns, I actually found myself fearful for what was to come. Instead, I found exactly what I should. Loving, caring, nurturing men and women who wanted nothing more than to help and teach young Christy. They were there for him in every single way, and it was so perfect.
I could go on and on, but to finally end this review, I just truly loved it. I cried in two separate parts which is SO rare. But the best part of all, Christy found out exactly who he was. ❤
Five star rating from me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -
I can’t say enough about how much I loved this book. Really brought together at the end are the lessons we all struggle with; our individual truth and experience about being unconditionally loved by our parents and how we look to them to find our value instead of within ourselves. How their love for us is a mirror reflecting how we feel about ourselves, how we understand and interpret their love for us equating how comfortable we are loving ourselves. The struggle of understanding and accepting the different parts that make up our whole that can also be in conflict with each other. It feels so freeing to learn who you are, to accept and love that person, and live a true life no matter what anyone thinks.
But going back to being unconditionally loved- it all seems to be the key to unlocking our personal freedoms and going forward in confidence. There are many takeaways in this book… the list is endless and you will find your own way of how it fits you personally. And it will. And then there is also just this great story. -
Jeanine Cummins has an amazing way of telling a story that just pulls you in and makes you want more. I really loved this book, I adored the young characters, I resonated with the woman at the book shop, I felt deeply for the adults. It's well rounded.
I will say that it started off slowly, but not in a way that made you disinterested. Not in a way that gives it any sort of negative quality. It's a wonderful book. -
A book that wasn't even on my reading pile. I picked it up as a mystery book from the library and never even read what it was about, apart from the fact it was set in Ireland. A slow burn, and took me much longer to get through than hoped, but actually that probably all helped my appreciation on this fabulous read. An unexpected hit!
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Jeanine Cummins has a gift with words. Thoroughly enjoyed this. I will continue to read more from her.
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A brilliant story about Irish travellers. A bit of a slow-burner but the writing is incredible in places, sometimes forgot I was reading it was that good. Compelling characters and some witty parts. Loses a star because the ending is a bit implausible, and the last few chapters are dialogue-heavy which loses the good narrative that ran throughout most of the book.
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For my taste, this oozed sentimentality. Also full of improbabilities, impossibilities. Another reviewer noted that the novel “strained credibility”. Agree!
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One of the author reviews on the inside cover of the book said that he after he finished he held the book to his chest and hugged it. I get why he did that. I didn't want to hug the book, but I wanted to reach inside this fictional world and hug young Christy Hurley. There is something so endearing, funny and sorrowful about Christy that you want to wrap him up and 'mother' him just like the nun did in his school after he smashed his face against the classroom door frame. Jeanine Cummins has a gift for creating not just a good coming-of-age story, but of infusing her story with imagery and language that reads like poetry. Cummings also has a great sense of humor which she used to underscore situations between characters that could have otherwise felt contrived. I'm thinking specifically of when Christy and Amy (Finnoula) take their party lunches into the kitchen and have their first intimate conversation. Christy is understandably nervous and excited about this encounter, but really, all he wants to do is eat the fabulous food on his plate. He likes her, but not enough to happily share his food! Another example is when Christy's father is standing in the kitchen of Christy's mother, holding his son for the first time--after just realizing that he has a son at all. It's a heavy, dramatic moment, but he looks up and says, "is his heart supposed to beat this fast?" The question feels real and elevates the moment from being overly dramatic.
The only criticism I have is I'm not sure that the story really depicts, accurately, the life of an Irish traveller. I know Cummins did a lot of research, and I know that she asks us, the readers, to suspend our disbelief for the language she chose for the travellers (it's not their true dialect--she felt it would be too difficult for a general audience to understand) but I felt like this story could have taken place anywhere and at anytime. I didn't learn much more about the travellers other than they move from town to town, camp in wagons, work with tin, beg occasionally and are not always welcome. I suppose I wanted more history of them as a group.
All in all, The Outside Boy is a very enjoyable read. -
Although the descriptions of the difference in culture were sometimes thin or one-dimensional, one thing kept me going throughout. This was the ability of Cummins to connect the reader to the overwhelming emotions felt by various characters.
A lack of nuance in the description of conditions for the family is the only weakness, more than compensated for by the depth of characters. -
Interesting that the tinker way of life continued into a more modern Ireland. Slow read at first but picked up ... gave me an understanding into their way of life.
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3.5
Book 24
First sentence: I was dreaming of purple horses.
Quotes:
Martin squirmed in even closer beside me, and I could feel his elbow stuck between two of my shivering ribs, like we was twins for a minute, instead of cousins. We were joined at the eyes and ears, joined at the dread. P. 28
I never fancied towns, the buttoned-up, closed-in feeling of them, p. 31
You still have to piss, even when the rest of the world stops working. P. 81
Afterwards, Granny was like an inverted lamp--she sucked light out of the day instead of lending it. P. 86
We ran from that town. Ran, scuttled, scurried, hurried. P. 106
This was a day I had waited lifetimes for. Lifetimes. Well. Since the last time. P. 118
Do you know the way sometimes, you don't realize you have a headache until it goes? And then, after, you can feel your shoulders slip, and your breath loosen, and that absence-of-pain, that pure comfort, settles 'round you like a hot bath? P. 136
She drank coffee instead of tea, so maybe she was a bit of an oddball. P. 154
She pulled out the first of her potions: a brown, opaque bottle with some thick, red liquid that stained my thigh and made me shriek like a girl (in my head, and also possibly out loud). P. 214
"But how can she be the mother of God if she's not God herself?" P. 294
My hands was sweating now and I could feel all manner of fluttering inside me, but maybe that's what courage was--to feel that trembling fear, and then to get on with it anyway. P. 586
A well-written, disappointing novel, set in the 1950s, featuring an Irish boy Traveller (similar to a gypsy) who's lived without his mom his whole life and is coming-of-age, trying to find his path. It wasn't a compelling read, especially in the middle. 3.5 stars -
Another 5 star this year. Jeanine Cummins wrote American Dirt, so she set the bar high for this book, and she delivered. Set in Ireland in the 1950s, it is the story of a small group of traveling Tinkers, who we would call gypsies now. It centers around Christy, and his relationship with his father, his cousin Martin, and his grandfather. It’s a coming of age story, one of my favorite types, as he questions his place as a Tinker and his guilt for his mother’s death at childbirth. I loved how Cummins let us slip into this unique Tinker world, the end of an era as they lose what little respect the had as their work dries up and they turn to petty theft. His struggles and questions felt daunting. Does he want to be a Tinker? Is it wrong to steal? Is he a murderer? The lilt of the Irish brogue was magical. I love his powerful relationship with his horse Jack. The book provides a unique perspective (like American Dirt did of the immigrants to the United States) to a group of people we would never have had the opportunity to know. She does her homework.
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A touching coming-of-age story, set in Ireland, with beautifully drawn scenes and characters. Five stars' worth of listening pleasure, but four stars for the slowwww beginning and for the occasional need to suspend disbelief. In his audio narration, Alan Devally masterfully captures the voices of the various characters—male, female, young, old, Traveller, and Buffer—and the poetry of Cummins's writing.
