Paper Moon

by Joe David Brown

The classic tale of a female Huck Finn, Peter Bogdanovich’s film version of the book was nominated for four Academy Awards. Set in the darkest days of the Great Depression, this is the timeless story of an 11-year-old orphan’s rollicking journey through the Deep South with a con man who just might be her father. Brimming with humor, pathos, and an irresistible narrative energy, this is American storytelling at its finest. Paper Moon is tough, vibrant, and ripe for rediscovery.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Humor, Coming Of Age, Southern, Historical

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Joe David Brown was a journalist and author, best known for the novel Addie Pray which was adapted into the 1973 film Paper Moon.

Brown was the son of William Samuel and Lucille Lokey Brown. He attended the University of Alabama and began his career as a police reporter for the Birmingham Post in the mid-1930s. He married the former Mildred Harbour in 1935. In 1936 he was named city editor for the Dothan Eagle. He moved on to positions with newspapers in Atlanta, Chattanooga and St Louis before joining the New York Daily News in 1939.

Brown served in the 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, parachuting into Normandy during the D-Day invasion. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre with palm for his service. The war also ended his marriage to Mildred. Afterward he returned to the Daily News but also began contributing fiction and non-fiction to the Saturday Evening Post. He married the former Frances O'Reilly in 1945, having met her while on assignment in Europe.

Brown's first novel, Stars in My Crown, was based on his earlier short story "Grandpa and the Miracle Grindstone". He was commissioned to adapt the novel for the 1950 film version, starring Amanda Blake, whose family was from Birmingham.

In 1949 he joined the staff of TIME magazine as a foreign correspondent, reporting from India, France and England until he left the magazine to become a freelancer in 1957. The film version of his 1956 World War II novel Kings Go Forth opened in 1958.

Brown's comic novel Addie Pray was set in Alabama during the Great Depression. The film, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starred Ryan O'Neal and his 10-year-old daughter Tatum as con-artist partners. Tatum won an Oscar for best supporting actress, though her part was really a starring role.
Brown died of a heart attack at his home in Mayfield, Georgia in 1976.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Love one another more, and show it and say it before it's too late."

When this novel was first published, it was called 'Addie Pray'... then it was soon made into what is now the undeniable classic film 'Paper Moon'. It seems the novel is now known by its movie title.

I had always wanted to read the source material - and I am SO glad I did. I absolutely LOVED this book and cannot recommend it enough! SO funny and ultimately so wise.

The most interesting thing about the book... in light of the film version is this: If they had faithfully adapted the novel as a film, it would have been twice as long. Because of the book's episodic nature, it was not difficult to just end the film at the point in the book which is a little beyond midway. As a result... as a film, the book doesn't seem to have been tampered with much at all and the film seems complete.

However... the rest of the book, which the film didn't have time to cover except in the smallest of ways, is by far the best part of the novel... and it was already quite good up to that point, so that's saying something. The novel builds to its most eccentric extension... making it something that lovers of the film won't want to miss.

Essentially, Moses and Addie happen upon a 'refined' gentleman who is enamored of them as con artists. He is esp. taken with Addie... viewing her as a child who knows the difference between good and evil but, fortunately, does not know the difference between right and wrong.

What happens when the 3 join forces is wonderfully inventive and a real treat to read. This is simply a blissfully memorable piece of writing. By the end, I was overwhelmed - and thankful I was in its company.

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

After eleven-year-old Addie Pray's mother dies, she travels around the South with Moses "Long Boy" Pray, the man who might be her biological father. He's a con man who tricks widows into buying Bibles and photographs of their deceased husbands. The sassy, smart Addie proves to be a good accomplice. They soon move on to more sophisticated swindles as they travel from Alabama to Tennessee and Louisiana.

I soon found myself cheering on Addie and Long Boy even though they were cheating people out of money during the Depression of the 1930s. They never try to swindle the very poor. Addie needs to feel that she's part of a family, and she has a vulnerability that tugs at the heart. Long Boy takes good care of Addie in his own way, although he is introducing her to a life of crime. Both Addie and Long Boy have quick minds and are fast talkers so they make a good team. Several other people also act as substitute family members that show her a part of the world that she has not experienced.

The book is written in a conversational tone in a Southern voice with Addie looking back at her younger days. The first part of the story was made into the movie "Paper Moon". Joe David Brown is a great storyteller with a good sense of humor.

[Camie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The basis of the memorable B&W Academy Award film (1973) starring Ryan O' Neal and his daughter Tatum ( who won an Oscar award for her performance at age 8), this 2002 edition re- titled from the original Addie Pray has a forward that explains the book / movie connection.
Set mostly in depression era Alabama and narrated by spunky 11 year old Addie Pray this book follows her adventures as the adorable and adept accomplice to the many money making hijinks pulled by charismatic shyster Moses (Long Boy ) Pray who is possibly her father. Written in a manner reminiscent of Steinbeck with a young heroine given Huck Finn like pluck , this was an enjoyable selection by my Southern Literary club. 4 stars

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me, but the first time must have been at least 35-40 years ago. I remembered some parts and particulars, but the ending not at all. A very satisfactory ending, I must say. Addie joins Scout Finch and Ellen Foster as one of my favorite child narrators. Even with the con games and swindling, Addie and Long Boy had their own kind of morality and code of ethics.
My favorite quote from the book that sums it all up nicely: "Everyone is better off with some class," Major Lee said once, "but if you're phony, it's absolutely mandatory."

[Mmars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh the delights of just plain reading for pleasure! And this book was just that. First published as Addie Pray in 1971, it was made into the movie Paper Moon in 1973. I remember that, too, as being a delightful little film, though it’s been 40 years.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film it starred Ryan O’Neal and his daughter Tatum as Addie Pray, who absolutely charmed me. Now the fictional character Addie Pray has done it again. This charm almost feels subversive because of the hucksters that Addie and her “daddy” Long Boy are. Now Long Boy may or not be her real Daddy, but he’s the one that takes her into his life after her mother dies. And that life is one spent traveling the south scamming people out of money, in small and ever growing ways. They begin with selling personally engraved Bibles and framed pictures of recently deceased husbands and grow from there. At first this is a day to day existence but it quickly evolves into more lucrative and complicated schemes providing them money for expensive cars and stays in good hotels. It doesn’t take Long Boy long to realize that Addie is an asset to his way of life. And despite his hucksterism, he’s good to her and they compliment each other like two peas in a pod.

I’ll segue from that little clichéd metaphor to one of my favorite aspects of this book (aside from characterization, masterful storytelling, and uniqueness of concept), that of language. Addie provides the most color through the kinds of metaphors one could only find in the American South, and Long Boy is a master of dialect. It is a dialect that changes depending upon who he is conversing with – their class or status, region.

Even if you’ve seen the film and know the story, you may want to read the book if only because less than half of their escapades are contained in the film. (Author Joe David Brown must have had one ingenious mind to think up all of their schemes.) The entire last third of the book takes place in New Orleans where Addie poses as the lost granddaughter of a dying and supposedly wealthy woman.

I just realized that my last 5 star read, Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans had a plot similar to this. Only it was a not-so-bright woman who takes in a boy, who is a whip smart WWII evacuee, and together they, too, go door to door scamming people. Not sure what that says about me or my reading, but I read them for different reasons and highly recommend them both.

[Kirk Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have forever been a fan of the flimflammer, the con artist, the charming swindler. It is a subject I have long admired as my own personal approach is so distinctly the opposite. I can not recall ever having gained anything worthwhile with a lie, and thus my skills of charm and deceit remain terribly undeveloped. I save myself a lot of time with a simple approach, but I do have huge respect for the con. They are a world apart and I am thrilled to live vicariously through books like this!

[Franky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paper Moon is set during The Great Depression, and it basically involves a man, Moses Pray, and his daughter(?) Addie Pray going around from place and scheme to scheme trying to scam people out of money. I know that there is not a great moral compass displayed, but there is sort of a tongue-in-cheek humor about many of their episodes. I suppose there is maybe slightly a coming of age and character arc for Addie Pray, the young girl in the schemes who narrates this story.

I felt like many of the earlier episodes and adventures were a tad repetitive: try to scam someone and have it blow up in their face. Repeat it all over again and try again. So, this is a book that I kept putting down, and I wavered in interest at points, but then I would pick it up again because I wanted to see how things would turn out at the end.

I think that, with the exception of the finale in the closing pages, the last episode when Major comes into the story is the most engaging part. If you think that Long Boy and Addie are con artists, they are quite amateurs compared to the Major, who has it all figured out and seems to have made an art form of “the scam.” The trio put together a rather ambitious plan to fleece an old woman out of her dough, but it isn’t as easy as it seems.

At points, this novel has a feeling of “coming of age” from Addie’s point of view, but then this never really completely materializes. I felt like the aforementioned ending was a little odd in that it seems to just end, period, without a few conflicts explained or resolved.

There’s a little fun here and there in the novel. I just wish it had been more consistent.

So, this novel was the basis for a film with Ryan and Tatum O’Neal back in the 70s which I will have to watch if I can track it down.

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have seen the movie that was made based on this novel more than once. I have always loved it. I thought Tatum O'Neal was the coolest little kid ever and I loved Addie. The movie changed quite a few things from the book. For one thing, the title used to be Addie Pray, but when they re-printed the book, they switched it to match the title of the movie. To be honest, I like this title better, so that's okay with me. I wish they had been able to add some of the things that happened near the end of the novel into the movie; it would have been some great scenes, but I get why some of it wasn't in there. It would have been hard, and very long. Addie tells you a lot, and the timeline covers a few years, they chose to simplify the film, and it worked.

The novel however, is fantastic. Addie is all you could hope for in a narrator. She is tough, feisty, charming, funny, sweet and really pays attention to the people and world around her. Her relationship with Long Boy (Moze in the film) is brilliant. They get on with each other much better and quicker in the novel. Their cons and travels are interesting and fun to read about, Addie is smart and I have always enjoyed novels set near the 1920s and 30s and this is a great look at the depression era. For Addie alone, this is one of my favorite novels, but the story is rich and very much worth a read.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe this coming of age novel is not more well known because the movie that was based on it was certainly a blockbuster. Although the location and much of the story was altered (the novel takes place in the deep South whereas the movie takes place in Kansas), I still imagined Ryan and Tatum O'Neal in the roles.

However, there is much more to the story as the movie leaves off roughly one third of the way through the novel. The most enjoyable aspect of the book is the sense that much of the background information is based on things that really happened, or on real scams that con men perpetrated like the "dropped wallet" ruse, or forging cotton certificates to sell at warehouses even though they had no actual product.

I really had no idea how it was all going to end because it seemed that many times, they should have quit while they were ahead.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading. The movie adaptation was titled "Paper Moon." The novel was later re-issued under that title.

Joe David Brown

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When he was wound up right he could sell doodle bugs for doorknobs." Long Boy was a con man in the hardscrabble days of the Great Depression. Addie Pray was his eleven-year-old accomplice and sidekick. Together young Addie and her "daddy" combed the Southern United States looking for their next big swindle.

To say I enjoyed this book is a understatement. It is funny, warm and clever and just as good as the movie named for it called Paper Moon. Joe David Brown created some unforgettable characters in this book as well as some very creative swindles. You have to wonder if those slippery deals were researched or of Brown's own imagination.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read. It is a happy collection of scams, stings and adventures by a depression era con artist and his (possibly) illegitimate daughter. The story is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Addie Pray who takes us through the life of a pair of grifters. They start out small, tricking widows into buying bibles and photos of their departed loved ones, but gradually expands to "doing business" on much bigger victims. They have run-ins with bootleggers, the bonded cotton buyers market and the wealthy nephew of a bitter old widow.

The book was originally titled "Addie Pray", the name was changed after the 1973 film came out and is now known as Paper Moon. You will not find a reference to "Paper Moon" in the book. That name came about because the director of the movie liked the sound of it and inserted a scene in the film with Addie having her picture taken in a paper moon set at a carnival.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often rate books 5 stars, and I wasn't sure this deserved the rating, but when you love a book so much that the feeling of “well, that's over” at the end makes you cry a little, I guess that's a 5-star read. Anyway, 4 stars doesn't seem to do it justice.

Chances are, you happened across this book because you saw the 1973 movie version starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. You know the truism that the movie version of a book always leaves a lot out, because you can't fit a full-length novel into a 2-hour movie? Well it's truer than ever in this case. The film version comprises literally only about the first third of the book (although it's fairly true to that third), and there's enough material in the other two-thirds for at least one sequel, and maybe two. So if you got a wistful feeling when Long Boy and Addie drove off together in that old truck at the end of the movie, the good news is, there are plenty more adventures still in store. The bad news is, you still won't want the adventure to end when you hit the last page.

If you're a fan of the movie, there's one significant difference you should know going in. The film version of Addie is pretty much just like the book version... except that film Addie has a moral compass and an unwavering sense of justice that is almost utterly lacking in book Addie. Film Addie only went with Long Boy (a) because he was supposed to be driving her to her relatives to stay, and (b) because he owed her $200 after swindling that money out of the brother of the man who killed Addie's mother. All the shenanigans that ensued were almost incidental, until the very end of the movie.

However, book Addie is a born grifter, pure and simple. Once she sees how Long Boy operates, she takes to the lifestyle with a will, and any fiction that she's going to stay with her kin is quickly dispensed with. It's so obvious they're a great team that Long Boy never even bothers to try to take her there, and Addie never shows any desire to go. And if you're hoping to see more of the Robin-Hood-esque Addie from the movie who steals from the rich and gives to the poor and acts as Long Boy's external conscience, you can forget it. This duo will con anyone they can get money out of, although obviously folks with more money to spare are better pickings. And although Addie takes great delight in pretending Long Boy is her daddy, the question of whether he's really her father is never really examined the way it is in the movie.

It's interesting to observe that Long Boy's “dropped wallet” scheme and the inheritance scheme they used to swindle Uncle Beau in the final third are just broad variants of what most people know today as “the Nigerian scheme.” Some form of it has probably been done nearly as long as there's been money. In the dropped wallet scheme, you actually show the mark the large amount of money they stand to gain, and then convince them they just need to cover certain interim expenses in order to get it. By the time the mark realizes he's never getting that money, the grifter is long gone with all the "expenses."

That's not to say it's all pure greed and self-interest. There is one part of their adventure where Long Boy regularly has to buy groceries as an excuse to cash a check (from one of their marks), and Addie relates that it became their habit to drop the groceries off on the porch of the sorriest-looking shack they saw on their way out of town.

Where the movie ends, the book is just getting started, as Long Boy and Addie move on to bigger and better schemes making them more money, broadening their territory, and improving their lifestyle. By the end, you'll scoff at how they used to sell bibles to widows for $8, $10, or even $20. It culminates in a grand scheme to defraud a dying heiress of her multi-million-dollar fortune – a scheme in which Addie herself plays the starring role. And don't worry... it turns out our mercenary little Addie has a humanitarian streak after all. One thing that made me really sad, though, was the way Addie abandoned Mayflower at the end, a woman she seemed to genuinely adore, by walking out and disappearing after expressly promising not to leave.

I guess just like movie Addie, when actually offered an alternative life, she realized she loved being on the road with Long Boy and doing "business" more than the idea of having a happy and comfortable home. You could say Addie is the free-spirited rebel girl in all of us, that part of us that wishes we dared to reject the ordinary kinds of lives our society offers women and run off to live a thoroughly unconventional life.

Audio Notes: The audio version, narrated by Laurel Lefkow, is rather hard to obtain, but it's a delight. Lefkow does Addie's flat Southern twang for most of Addie's narration, but also brings out plenty of other voices for the dialog, including Miss Trixie Delight's vapid giggling, which almost had me howling, she was so spot-on to Madeline Kahn's memorable performance in the movie.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved the movie "Paper Moon" but never thought to read the original novel "Addie Pray." This new edition changes the title to match the movie (smart) and includes a nice foreword by the movie's director Peter Bogdanovich. It practically leaped off the library shelf into my hands.

The story, in case you don't know, is about an 11-12 year old girl, Addie , who's mother dies during the Great Depression. A man named Moses Pray, who may or may not be her father, offers to drive her to the next of kin in a neighboring state. The book takes place in the South while the movie moved the action to the Midwest. It turns out that Moses is a traveling con man and Addie soon becomes his partner in petty crimes. The book is told from Addie's point of view and is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a Huck Finn-style adventure. The movie barely scratches the surface when it comes to the variety of schemes they employ and the depth of familial feeling the two develop for each other. The last 120 pages of the book aren't even in the movie and, according to Bogdanovich, they were to be the basis for a sequel.

I tore through this book and did not want to put it down. I had to fight to keep from bawling on the F train to work at the ending. I don't often read forewords but learned quite a bit from this one, including the existence of a 13 episode TV series with Jodie Foster as Addie. I'm going to have to find that for a binge watch weekend. In the meantime I'm going to have the song "Paper Moon" stuck in my head for a few days.

[Polly Florence]

4.5/5 stars

[Leslie Golden · Rating 4 out of 5]

They just don't make books like this anymore. Addie Pray is a female Huckleberry Finn, with the practical, good-humored insight of Scout Finch and Mattie Ross. I picked it up first because it charmed my father back in the 1970's, then I jumped in, thrilled it was set in Alabama, my adopted home. Finally, I surrendered to Addie's charms because her character is irresistible. A precocious, film-flammer with a belated sense of justice, Addie is an original.

Forget the movie, "Paper Moon" although it is faithful to the first third of the book. The adventures of Moses and Addie Pray don't end after their contretemps with the bootlegging sheriff. Read on as the intrepid pair redistribute wealth throughout the South, righting wrongs and separating unnecessary valuta from souls too greedy or foolish to be trusted with that much dinero. Mainly listen to the wonderful, authentic voice of Addie Pray as she cuts through the nonsense and flapdoodle of adult society. She's a joy.

So, read it for the schemes, read it to revisit the South or read this for the jokes but take the time to meet Addie Pray. She's too good to miss.

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, so much to love about this novel! The wonderful characters, the level of detail that brought the US Southern states in the 1930s to life, the engaging voice of the narrator Addie Pray. Most impressive of all: what seems to be a random collection of anecdotes turns out to be a subtly crafted and engrossing plot. I just didn't want this book to end.

[Kevin Prinoski · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Paper Moon” (formerly titled “Addie Pray” by Joe David Brown, 1971) is an absolutely delightful novel about a pair of con artists touring depression-era America for “business” purposes. Business is a euphemism for their various and typically lucrative operations to con unsuspecting individuals or businesses out of small or large sums of money. Both are well adept at their profession. Addie Pray is the book’s heroine and narrator - an eleven year-old girl with the ability to assess situations and psychologically manipulate people with the dexterity of an adult thrice her age. Her equally skilled partner in fraud and larceny is Long Boy Pray, who is very likely her biological father but this possibility remains unconfirmed throughout the novel. This is a great work of fiction that frequently made me chuckle or gasp while reading. To put it simply, I loved it. The only minor criticism I can note are a handful of errors (typos and wording) in the text that seem to have eluded proofreading, at least in the edition that I read (Coronet Books, Hodder Paperbacks Ltd., London, 1973). I highly recommend this book.

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, which McKenzie reviewed, sounded really interesting, so I borrowed it from her and...I was hooked. I always like to read books about enterprising con men and women who you can sympathize with. Addie Pray is eleven years old, and she travels around Alabama and a few other states with Long Boy, who is possibly her daddy, and they fleece a whole bunch of gullible people.

I agree with Kenzie in that this one should have become more of a classic. It's really entertaining; not what I would call "high-brow literature" (whatever that means), but fun to read. I think they made a movie out of it though. I didn't find the dry patch that Kenzie referred; there were a lot of various different types of cons that were described, and I liked that. I wanted their adventures to continue. I probably liked this one a lot because I really like the movie The Sting (which incidentally was made around the same time as this book was published), which also about con men during the Depression. So now you have two reviews motivating you to read it.

www.novareviews.blogspot.com

[jimtown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paper Moon originally titled Addie Pray was first published in 1971. It wasn't long after that a movie version came out starring Ryan O'Neal and his daughter Tatum. I saw the movie first. It's an adorable con man type story that Tatum won a well deserved Academy Award for, the youngest ever at ten years old.

Anyway, after watching the movie a second time, I looked to see if it was based on a book and it was. The book and movie each have their own merits but are a little bit different. Both very good. The book of course went in to more detail and explained some of the elaborate scams and con jobs that Addie and Long Boy (Mose) pulled off.

The book kept my attention and was enjoyable. Well worth reading.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve loved the movie for many years, “Paper Moon,” but I know that movies rarely cover the entire story. In this case, it covered about a third of the book which was originally titled, “Addie Pray.” The rest is just as good, and the end is really sweet, but I can see why they decided not to do a sequel. The author made mid-1930s South really come alive for me, but what really amazed me is how an older man could write from a twelve year old girl’s perspective. I’m so glad I took the time to read it.

[Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Loved it. Best "con" story that I ever read. Old school Flim-flam. Well drawn characters. Bogdanovich did a terrific job with the movie. I prefer the book, though. So many more adventures with Addy and Long Boy. Lot of fun, and a great snap shot of Depression era america. Deserves to be read by more folks. Pick it up!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious story of a Bible-selling con man and his smart-talking sidekick/daughter. Pure entertainment reading and a real hoot.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book after watching the movie "Paper Moon" Now years later, am reading it again. The book takes place in the 1930s during the depression. It is narrated by Addie, the 11 year old girl who has just lost her mother. Moses "long boy" Pray arrives at the funeral. There is a chance he could be the father of Addie. Addie's mother has been with several men so only a "Maybe dad" Moses is asked to take Addie to an aunt who lives a couple states away. Turns out Moses is a con artist. He gets 200 dollars by threatening the brother of the man who caused the car accident that killed Addie's mother. Along the way supposedly to Addie's aunt Moses { otherwise know as long boy in the book} makes money by doing cons some being swindling widows out of money by claiming their departed spouse ordered a bible for the wife. or had a picture taken. Addie turns out to be just as good at joining in on the cons as Long boy. For months they travel the south doing cons. Other characters come into the book like Trixie Delight, the slutty show girl, Another man who takes moses and Addie along for is own cons. and toward the end Addie and an old lady who is supposed to be rich and Addie posing as a long lost granddaughter. Does Addie ever make it to her aunts house? There is quite a bit more in the book that was in the movie. I very much liked this book {originally called Addie Pray} I am glad I read this well done book again.

[Jamie Dacyczyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up. This was a generally entertaining reading, for a "classic". The time period and the protagonist definitely gave me whiffs of "To Kill a Mockingbird" even if the plot was entirely different.

I'll say that the writing style of this book turned out to be enjoyable, which is surprising since I normally hate books written with a lot of dialect. For some reason I had no problem "translating" the dialect here, so that worked for me.

I did find my patience with the plot starting to lag around the 200 page mark. Hearing the intricacies of one con after another was getting old, and the cotton selling scheme felt like it was going to go on forever. Luckily, the final pieces of the story started to fall together in the end, and I was glad that the main characters turned their devious scheming around in order to ultimately help someone, instead of ripping them off.

So, overall I'd say this was a good read, but I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped.

[Hal Issen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1st half of the book is the basis for the movie Paper Moon, which hews closely to this book. The second half is a stand-alone shaggy dog story a la Mark Twain that would have been a great movie sequel to Paper Moon. Or it could have been a disaster, which is a distinct possibility considering Ryan O'Neal's ego and reaction following Tatum O'Neal's Oscar winning performance in the original. Back to the book, it is a lighter-weight entry to the American fiction genre that includes True Grit, Lonesome Dove, and Little Big Man. These books share a first person narrative in floral, antiquated and amusing speech that mixes formal and vernacular language, think WC Fields. If you enjoy him or those books, you may like Addie Pray/Paper Moon as well. Three and a half rounded up to four stars.

[Ella Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hesitant to read this for ages as Paper Moon is one of my most favourite movies of all time and I never heard anyone talking about the book, so I assumed it would not measure up. How wrong I was. This was very close to being as charming, funny and moving as the film and Addie Pray might just be second to Cassandra Mortmain as my most loved literary protagonist. The only thing I will say is: whilst the relationship between Moses and Addie is the most touching and compelling aspect of the movie, I felt it was far more downplayed in the book (however, this may be more down to the excellency of Ryan and Tatum O’Neal’s performances rather than a fault of the author).

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This whole book is one gigantic romp and I really enjoyed it. Very episodic and easy to read. The ending was especially neat and incredibly satisfying.

[Victor Porras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging and charming. The narration was completely believable and authentic, and it felt like I was wandering around Depression-era Alabama with our two smooth-talking anti-heroes.

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A piece of my childhood (haven't read this in 30 years) & I still love it. I'm not considering any of the moral or legal questions the story raises. Just pure fun.