The Outside Boy: A Novel Paperback – June 1, 2010

Jeanine Cummins certainly has a way with words, and I kept turning the pages eager to read what was next. Christy was a young man any mother could love, but he only had a father. It turned out his father loved him so very much. This was a story about love, forgiveness, sadness and joy. This was a story about finding yourself and where you fit in to the world. This was a wonderful story told marvelously well.

Outside Boy is about a young boy who lives with his father and travels around Ireland in a wagon train with his grandparents, his aunt and uncle, and his cousins selling what they can; begging or stealing when their selling comes up short. Christy is motherless and loses his grandda early in the story. He struggles throughout the story to figure out who he is and who he wants to be; thinking he will find all the answers by learning more about who his mother was. It is well written; part mystery, part love story, and finally, coming into his own.

This was a book that I couldn't put down, yet didn't want it to ever end. I've read a book a week all my life and this is my first book review. I've never read a story like this. The author wraps you in a magical quilt of words, weaving profound feelings and insights into the story. I smiled, I cheered, I cried my heart out. Most of all I felt empathy for every character and understood their points of view, their decisions. We tend to simplify other's lives and sum them up in a tidy declaration. The author shows the pain and deep love that fills the hearts of her characters and I found myself understanding how their lives were shaped by decisions - how they sacrificed and continued to live with the consequences. The author shows there is no right and wrong, no good or bad person. She does an amazing job of showing the nuances of the human heart while weaving poetry that makes you see the world and common things in a spectacular way. This is by far one of my favorite books of my life. I want to tell everyone about it, yet somehow it's so special that I want to hold this story close to me like the memory of a teenage summer love, like I don't want to speak about it out loud should it lose some of the special magic that only I could ever understand.

The Outside Boy, by Jeanine Cummins, is a full-length novel about a boy named Christy (short for Christopher). He lives with his father and a few other relatives as a ‘Traveler’, or a ‘Tinker’, named for the way they move from place to place. We see life from his perspective—a different sort of life than most could ever fathom, and how he learns about himself and his past. Growing up with the notion that his mother died when he was born, brings complexity and emotion to the story, especially when the facts of his past truly present themselves.This is the kind of book that is written so richly that I read slowly, soaking up all of it like a sponge. The boy’s character and the surroundings he lives in are written in such fine detail that I imagine I am there, and my mind easily plays out his adventures like a movie. His speech and thought patterns, so realistic in the ways people speak, add a strong third dimension to the story. The characters are all well written and alive it seems like this could be more of an autobiography rather than a fictional tale. I’ve read some reviews of this book where it seems like the reader most likely skimmed through it, and missed the important elements entirely. Don’t let that be you, because if you read it quickly, without savoring the many delightful parts, you may miss the story. I also love the way that The Outside Boy, by Jeanine Cummins, presents to us the lives of traveling folk, while gently giving us a mirror of our own. This book comes highly recommended for readers teen and above.

This is a story about place. How you find your "place," how you keep your "place," how "place" forms and shapes you. The family in The Outside Boy are "tinkers," gypsies, as some of us grew up calling them. In short, people without tangible place, whose sense of place lies in their wagon culture, the very act of moving on, a sort of pretend independence. We in the US, where we don't have "travellers" but "the homeless," pride ourselves on having the ability to cross borders with ease. But in truth, we don't. We cannot change our skin, our deepest language, our fiercest wants. We can no more go from have-not to have without a seam than we can fly. Witness the millions of homeless in our cities.Christy, the outside boy, takes a new road, trying to unravel his personal history. We follow him on the road, into school, church, stores, the houses of the "placed" folks, rich and poor. He's looking for HIS place.This is a very good book, real and moving, and thought-provoking. The ending is fairy tale absolut, and secretly I loved it. It was champagne, it was cotton candy. If I'd been writing the story (all critics seem to get to this point somewhere along the road), I'd have loved concocting it. I'd have cried, and laughed, and yelled my head off. And then I'd have torn it up and sought a more realistic finish. But that's me. I rewrite in my head every book I read.Cummins went with the fairy tale, whipped cream with a cherry on top, and it was and is delicious. Since it was just a metaphor for the growth of the characters and not the growth itself, well, peace be on it! We can stand a little extra dessert every now and then.

I loved the first two Cummins books I read and started this one with high expectations. It was slow to get into but I persisted. About two-third of the way through I was ready to give up on it, particularly by the narrative that was supposedly to be that of an 11 year old boy which was totally unbelievable. At one point I said out loud "OH, COME ON!" But... I continued and the ending gripped me and tugged at my heartstrings and ultimately I was happy that I read the book and continue to be a fan of Cummins. "The Outside Boy" could have benefited from better editing, but it was a satisfying read and I'll wait anxiously for her next book.