Customer Reviews

Earl in the Yellow Shirt: Novel, A

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Earl had two shirts. One was brown plaid and the other a light yellow. The brown shirt he wore everyday and usually when working, and the yellow shirt he saved for visiting and courting Loujean, the only daughter in the Scurvy family. Loujean remained the only daughter until her sixteenth year when Mama had the baby, another girl. But Mama had died and the baby had lived and was Loujean's now and forever to raise. Staying in school wasn't an option for Loujean now that she had her sister to care for. What she named the baby allows a look into this young poverty-stricken girl's very tender and loving heart and it's no wonder that Earl's warm heart yearned for hers.

Loujean's three brothers, Alamand, Pee Wee and Buck were trying to find a way to bury Mama. Mama was in cold storage at the funeral home in Jasper, Florida, right over the Georgia line until the family could come up with the burial money. Their father, the old man, did it up right when Aunt Becky died, but now he was done with everything, and he still owed money to the funeral director for Aunt Becky's funeral. Mama wasn't getting buried until someone paid up.

In Janice Daugharty's novel EARL IN THE YELLOW SHIRT, the story of Mama's burial and the story of each member of this endearing and exasperating family is told from each person's point of view. Earl, although not a family member, is so important to them that we also hear his point of view. He becomes a central character as he struggles to find a way to raise money to help the Scurvys bury their dead. Earl is kind and has a good heart, and Loujean can see herself with him in the future.

Scurvy, despite being this family's name, is a disease, and the family is somewhat of a disease to the community in which they live. But put together, the children of the family have a lot inside of them to see. Alamand, the youngest, has art in his blood and is driven to draw. Pee Wee has alcohol in his blood and got "shot up" in Korea. Pee Wee feels that Mama is better off dead, after the struggles she had while alive. Buck is full of Earl's stories that he's heard a dozen times, and a belly full of digging post holes for fences for a little bit of money. Loujean has the beauty of flowers, birds and nature that sustains her and she sees them in her own artist's eye. Earl has it in him to risk his life to see that his friends' mother is properly buried.

No one, including the Scurvys, are trash. The old man's language is peppered with hain't and hit, and not a one of them has any kind of education. But saying "hain't" and "hit" for "it" aren't sins. Running moonshine isn't a sin when people can't eat or provide warmth in the winter. Being poor isn't a sin, and neither is being uneducated a sin. The Scurvys are part of the invisible of the world who people don't see or don't want to see. The sin lies within those who don't care and who do nothing to help raise these people up and to see them as humans in need.

For the two hundred-forty pages of EARL IN THE YELLOW SHIRT, their sins are forgiven. This is a beautiful piece of literary fiction that everyone can enjoy. Meeting the Scurvys and Earl is a reading experience you won't forget.

This author is great! I have read all her books except Whistle & I just bought it. Her dipiction of the south is the best. Her characters are very believeable. I would love to know them. Please Ms Daugharty more books with the same theme as your previous books.

I agree with the other reviews - this is a superb book. My husband is from that area of Georgia so I know firsthand that Ms. Daugharty truly writes what she knows [including the dialect]. The summary on the back makes it sound like it would be dark and depressing, but on the contrary. I finished it feeling very positive and glad I had read it.

The last reviewer doesn't know what he or she is talking about! This is a rich novel of an American South at once contemporary and timeless, and its many virtues include ear-perfect dialog -- plus a great deal more. What I like best is the character's struggle with the burden of the local morality, a struggle that results in heavy losses, but also a quirky, stirring triumph. Janice Daugharty is Dixie's latest recording angel, a true heir to the legacy of Flannery O'Connor.

Increadible novel! This book is an amazing work of southern fiction. Daugharty accurately reveals the life of the south in rural Georgia. Her writing style is fresh and truthful. This novel was one I found difficult to put down.

Saying "hit" for "it" does not make for southern dialect. Nor does a yellow shirt establish a character. It all is sooo flat, and the characters have no connection to real life

EARL definitely deserves five stars, if for nothing but the cover. Hey, you never know! It could be another OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU! (?) Author, Janice Daugharty