The Smoke in Our Eyes

"Small towns have long been the launch pads for great American literature, from To Kill A Mockingbird to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  It's time to welcome one more to the club.  The Smoke in Our Eyes is an ambitiously expansive and yet winsomely intimate portrait of a young boy growing up in Vernon, Montana, in the late 1950s, a town that, as his sister puts it, 'has you pegged the day you're born.' Nobody tells a story better than Grady. With humor and wisdom, with a marvelous eye for the visceral details that bring an entire world into being, Grady chronicles a boy—and a nation—on the threshold of great change. Neither will ever be the same again."

“The excellent coming-of-age story is a change of pace for the legendary thriller author. Here, in this delicate but haunting noir, the young characters are beautifully crafted, the story is dramatic and utterly believable, and the time period is vividly evoked.”

"Though the threat of violence looms throughout the narrative, Grady delivers a spare tale of domestic tragedy, rich with nostalgia and memorable characters. Larry McMurty fans will enjoy themselves." 

 

“This isn’t a coming-of-age story of a young boy, this is the coming-of-age story of a young nation, rendered on the canvas of rural America, circa 1959. A heart-rending meditation on how innocence becomes wisdom, how fate becomes freedom, and how nostalgia reveals truth. I loved this book!”

"Grady pivots from the intrigue of The Condor to a powerful, heartfelt coming-of-age tale set in the Last Best Place. Young Lucas gets his first pair of glasses and a good, long look at the underbelly of his hometown. From first crushes and family ties to profound love and deep injustice, The Smoke in Our Eyes is a brilliant portrait of an era. This book feels like home."

"The Smoke in Our Eyes gives us a propulsive coming-of-age novel with a heart as big as its Montana high plains setting."

"James Grady’s The Smoke In Our Eyes rounds up family, community, and the land like his rugged settler-cowhand forebearers… I savored the behaviors, concerns, speech patterns, accomplishments, failures, eccentricities, ids, egos, and the general feast of America and our place of origin in Smoke."

                     

Praise for James Grady

"A cinematic thriller racing through the heartland of our American now."

“Brilliant! A novel of soaring imagination, This Train delivers a kaleidoscope of riveting characters and roller coasters of hurtling plots. The book’s nonstop pages redefine crime fiction, and author Grady captivates us further by telling the story in a voice that is so rich, resonant and poetic that it veritably sings. Bravo!”

“A cross-section of American types—visualize an updated version of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims—whose actions, often enigmatic and ominously unsettling, are relayed in fast-moving, syncopated prose, each sentence like a knife-thrust.  It is a truth universally acknowledged that suspense novels set on trains can’t help be anything other than terrific."