The Blue Star

by: Tony Earley

Published by: Little, Brown and Company (March release)

Reviewed by Harold N. Walters

Jim Glass is in love with Chrissie Steppe who, because she sits in front of him, makes history his favorite subject. Unfortunately, Jim’s love is star-crossed.

Chrissie is a part Cherokee girl from Lynn’s Mountain–and a romance between her and a white boy is frowned upon in Aliceville in these days before the United States enters WWII. Chrissie is also Bucky Bucklaw’s girl, and Bucky has written Jim from Hawaii warning him to stop sniffing around his girl.

Another complication in Jim’s life is that Norma, his previous girlfriend, is still making a quilt with his mother. This project began when Mrs. Glass assumed the quilt would eventually be spread on her son’s and Norma’s marriage bed. Bound by his mother’s command, Jim is obliged to walk Norma to his house after school each day, a task that prevents him from lingering on the schoolhouse steps to watch Chrissie board the Lynn’s Mountain bus.

Luckily, Jim owns a car, a 1935 Ford he calls The Major. One day when Chrissie becomes sick at school, Jim seizes the opportunity to drive her home. During this ride Jim is mystified by Chrissie’s behavior when he learns details of Bucky’s hold on her.

The author tackles several of the tormenting issues that once troubled—and to some degree perhaps still trouble America. He examines the issue of racism, especially as it is reflected in the attitudes towards Chrissie and her outlaw father, Injun Joe. The author explores the ruinous effects of a young couple being forced to marry, then to live and work in a factory town.

Even while Jim boyishly pines for Chrissie, his innocence is eroded by secrets he learns about people he has known all his life, his Uncle Zeno, for instance. In his final year of high school, Jim’s innocence is completely shattered, yet his maturity is strengthened by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the ensuing, monumental events that it triggers.

All in all, while Earley takes his reader from the painful, incipient moments of a young man’s budding love to the adversity of a country at war, The Blue Star is a novel for everyone who has ever been smitten by true love’s bittersweet splendor.

Armchair Interviews says: Well written about social issues that some people still face every day.