The Charlatan's Boy: A Novel [Paperback]

Jonathan Rogers (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 5, 2010 | Age Range: 10 and up

“I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud.” 
 

As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the Ugliest Boy in the World act.
 
It’s a hard way to make a living, made harder by the memory of fatter times when audiences thronged to see young Grady perform as “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp.” But what can they do? Nobody believes in feechies anymore.
 
When Floyd stages an elaborate plot to revive Corenwalders’ belief in the mythical swamp-dwellers known as the feechiefolk, he overshoots the mark. Floyd’s Great Feechie Scare becomes widespread panic. Eager audiences become angry mobs, and in the ensuing chaos, the Charlatan’s Boy discovers the truth that has evaded him all his life—and will change his path forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Jonathan Rogers
“The unusual settings and characters keep the surprises coming, while Rogers’s lovely descriptions and distinctive voice keep the pages turning. Faith fiction readers of all ages should enjoy this…”
—Publishers Weekly

“Jonathan Rogers knows how to tell a story. He’ll take you to fantastic lands that somehow still feel close to home and keep you happily guessing until the end. His fantasy tales ring of folklore and seem to spring up out of history like old willows in an earthy bog. Dr. Rogers never fails to serve up uncanny adventures that, like some impossibly nutritious brownies, are ridiculously tasty and deeply fulfilling.”
—Wayne Thomas Batson, best-selling author of The Door Within Trilogy

“Jonathan Rogers has created a new kind of story—part fantasy, part southern fiction. It’s sad and funny and heartwarming. Imagine a southern version of a C. S. Lewis story or a Christian version of a Mark Twain tale. Imagine a world where dragons are alligators, the American South is an island kingdom of cowboys and swamp dwellers, and ugliness, it turns out, is profoundly beautiful. Jonathan Rogers, a Georgia boy with a PhD, a strong faith, and a healthy imagination, gives us a timeless story no one else could have written. I loved it.”
—Andrew Peterson, author of The Wingfeather Saga

About the Author

Jonathan Rogers grew up in Georgia, where he spent many happy hours in the swamps and riverbottoms on which the wild places of The Charlatan’s Boy are based. He received his undergraduate degree from Furman University in South Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in seventeenth-century English literature from Vanderbilt University. He lives with his family in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (October 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307458229
• ISBN-13: 978-0307458223
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely unique October 7, 2010

By A. Peterson

Format:Paperback

The Charlatan's Boy has one of the best first chapters I've read in years and Rogers has the chops to deliver the rest of the book with just as much finesse. The voice is unique and lovable, and the story is funny, sad, joyful, and surprising. I've never read anything quite like it. I didn't even know it wanted to read anything like it until I did. Now I wonder how I ever lived without it. Fantastic book. Can't wait for the next one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I've just found a Christmas present for all the nieces and nephews October 11, 2010

By Sal

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Best. Book. Ever.

Until the next one Dr. Rogers gives us, maybe.

What makes it so good? It's not just a fun story, though it is that. It most definitely is a rip-roaring tale full of laughter and boyish pranks. But what adds depth is the keen understanding Rogers has of human nature and the way he packages that to make us see our own folly and foibles instead of rushing by them as we usually do.

Some readers may identify with the charlatan. Others might see themselves in the preening cowboys. Some of us will admit that we've been as easily-duped as the townspeople. If we're honest we'll probably see that we've been a little bit of all these characters at various times in our lives.

We will all mostly identify with the boy, though. With every novel Rogers has written thus far he makes us long to be better people, because his boys long to be brave and good and honest.

In THE CHARLATAN'S BOY Rogers gives us a boy who is down and out--a kid who has no one to love him. (Picture Oliver Twist in the American frontier days.) This boy has a longing to not only be loved, but to love others back. And out of the fullness of his heart, his mouth speaks. Young Grady opens his mouth and out drips all kinds of wisdom, winsomely disguised as longing. The kid thinks about honesty and friendship and repairing broken relationships. He's a boy of integrity who longs to provide value for his wages. He's a boy with clear vision, and what makes him so endearing is that he doesn't really know he has clear vision. He's been raised by a rascal so he's not really sure he's right about things. But in his heart he feels things. He instinctively knows things.

I'll give you just one bit of wisdom from the boy. After telling us about the cowboys and their devoted dogs, he says:

"Floyd never let me keep a dog, but I believe I'd be a better boy if I had a critter to look at me the way a cowdog looks at its drover. I'd work mighty hard to deserve a dog's good opinion."

This is Grady--aching to be loved. He's a unique character with a universal longing. And he's wise. He knows that being loved doesn't just make us feel better. And it doesn't just make us perform better. It actually makes us into better people. Grady really would be a better boy if he had a dog to love him. He'd work to become the boy the dog saw him to be.

Rogers plunks this gem into the middle of a dusty field where happy dogs, with their tongues hanging out, are trotting back and forth between the cows and the cowboys.

Read the book. Fall in love with Grady. Then introduce him to all your friends.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Book to Read; A Fun Book to Write March 17, 2011

By N. Meldrim

Format:Paperback

You can read many reviews about this book to get an idea of the plot. However, while I enjoyed the plot, I appreciated much more. There were many, many moments in reading this book that I could picture the author writing the sentence then leaning back from his computer laughing at what he had just written. You might not think that is a good quality to have in a book, but if you can tell that the author is having fun telling the story it makes the story even that much more enjoyable, at least in my view.
This is the first book by Jonathan Rogers that I have read, and, like many others, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I have never met the man, but I certainly enjoy the way he tells a tale. There are some who have said that the plot is too slow or that it feels episodic. I think that is what Dr. Rogers was trying to do. In reading the exploits of a charlatan with a distinct southern accent, I felt life slow down, until the moments of action within each episodic chapter kept the pages turning.
More than just the style and the humor is a human element of acceptance and community that I think younger readers will be able to appreciate. Every 12 year old boy I know wants to be the best at something, even if it is being ugly. Everyone wants to be accepted. Grady longs to settle down his nomadic life in which he only gets to really know liars and frauds. He acknowledges that true community doesn't allow for such scheming. You have to face the same people everyday so lies catch up with you. He also struggles with the ethics of his trade, wondering if he really is an honest person. There are deep themes underlying the humor and enjoyment of the book that, while not overtly Christian, certainly made me think of Scripture; very possibly the same Scripture that Dr. Rogers was thinking of without quoting in the book.
I am looking forward to when my sons are a little bit older and we can share this story (about a boy looking for such love, acceptance, and community)together as a family.
The Charlatan's Boy: A Novel