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 g...

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 receive...

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.

"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 succe...

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 th...

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.

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.

(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

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 thoro...

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.

Jeanine Cummins has a gift with words. Thoroughly enjoyed this. I will continue to read more from her.

This did not pass the 3 chapter rule. In fact, I barely made it to chapter 2. I found it very slow and uninteresting.

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.

Too many descriptive words; didn't give a hoot about the characters. Put it down after 75 pages.

3.5Book 24First 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. 28I never fancied towns, the buttoned-up, closed-in feeling of them, p. 31You still have to piss, even when the rest of the world stops working. P. 81Afterwards, Granny was like an inverted lamp--she sucked light...

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...

What an amazing Audiobook adventure!

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.

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 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...