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WHERE'S JIM NOW? by Bianca Bradbury

WHERE'S JIM NOW?

By

Pub Date: Oct. 25th, 1978
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

What's going on with Jim?. Why does he prefer confinement in Burrows Rehabilitation Institute to life outside? Fourteen-year-old Dave Harrison is genuinely puzzled by Jim, his dead father's son by a previous marriage, and he tries to put the pieces together while dealing with some heavy changes of his own: now that his father is dead, Dave and his mother, with very few resources, have to turn Journey's End into a profitable fishing lodge. They invite Jim to stay when he's released and the older son does help out: he's a mechanical whiz who repairs and improvises handily. But his personality traits are disturbing, his behavior impulsive. And when he steals yet another car just to get caught and return to BRI, his plan backfires and he is sent to prison--a hardening experience. Bradbury creates a complex, believable scene, gives Dave a share of ambivalence, and introduces some minor characters for ballast and contrast, but while the situation is somewhat feasible the story itself is less than engrossing.