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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And so it began........,
By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Winter Birds (Hardcover)
Having just read "Comfort & Joy" and finding it a highly successful novel, I took fellow reviewers' suggestion and traced this author's literary progress by reading his initial novel, "Winter Birds". An incredible journey! Not only is his first novel enormously engrossing (like the fascination of watching an autopsy), learning the narrator's (Danny Crell) history supplements his further life voyage in "Comfort...". After being absorbed in Winter Birds for one evening, my immediate response was to re-read "Comfort & Joy" with a better knowledge of the polarity of that last book's main characters. Grimsley is a gifted writer, and knowing that his first successes were in playwriting is no surprise. "Winter Birds" is an intense, credible study of the type of dysfuntional family that we'd all rather not believe exists. But by writing this book I think Grimsley sensitizes us to look beyond the adult RE-actions of troubled people to find how incredible it is that many of these injured and abused people made it into adult life. Powerful, thought provoking writing.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Behind the face before me,
By Jim Morris (Marietta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Winter Birds: A Novel (Paperback)
A friend loaned me this book without comment but knowing that I am a juvenile court judge. I know this family in dozens of permutations, but I will empathize more when I see them next thanks to Jim Grimsley. I started and finished the book in one sitting last night. It is a powerfully executed visit inside the life of a boy who is surviving a violent family minute-by-minute. The characters cry out for peace, for relief from the cruelty of a father and husband who views them as property, and from a society that agrees. Excellent book that makes me crave more of the same, but only after I manage to exhale.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully melancholy,
By A Customer
This review is from: Winter Birds: A Novel (Paperback)
Readers and reviewers have panned this novel as grim. But it is a celebration of the courage of Danny, a character who reappears (starring) in the novel "Comfort & Joy." We all know abuse happens - especially in situations of poverty. Compound that with the inherent abuse of an ignorant father against his small hemophiliac child and you have a definite "tear-jerker." Defying cliche, again, as he does in all of his novels, Grimsley shows the silent strength of the children who help their mother to dodge the father's brutality. You quickly envision the souls of 40 year olds trapped in the body of toddlers. It is something profoundly emotive. Something to be savored. Grimsley's talent lies in painting a psychological portrait of the characters. This can be a daunting task, but he does so with ease and fluidity. I recommend this book not because of its "tearjerker" plotline, but because of the inherent hope that rises from the strength of its characters. Much like his novel "Comfort and Joy," the writer seeks to ensconce desolation with strength and hope. It's a novel that is not grim; it is a novel that seeks to show the points of light in the pitch black of sadness.
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