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Brenda Youngerman
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Title: Sorrowed Souls
Genre: Fiction/Drama/Thriller
Pages: 300
Synopsis:
The eyes are said to be the window to the soul.
Some eyes shine with joy, others reveal sadness. The worst is when eyes reflect nothing—a darkness—a hopelessness, a giving up on life.
Bryan Tines wakes up in a strange place with no memory of who he was or where he came from. In the blink of an instant, everything important to him was lost—gone. Hungry and dirty, Bryan must find his way back, and with the help of those considered the invisible layer of society, Bryan struggles to do so.
Gus Hill is a loner searching for a place to belong. Wealthy and with the curse of alcoholism, Gus survives day to day by living on the edge, living on the outside looking in. Gus heads quickly toward self destruction, when the harsh words of a well-meaning friend wake him from his self-induced sleepwalk through life. Then Gus learns what life really is.
Amy Pickens life is constant misery. She is forever struggling with the role her mother assigned to her from her youth—a difficult birth, a burden. In one instant life offers her a moment of pure joy, which seems to go awry. Will she find her happiness or was it just a fleeting instant?
Brenda Youngerman writes a tale of stunning clarity and insight into the lives of average people. Beautifully written, her novel explores the human condition, the ways in which our past torture and free us, and the risks we’re willing to take to realize the illusive dream of happiness.
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Review by Review by John Allen
Those familiar with Grisham’s The Street Lawyer will feel much at home with Brenda Youngerman’s Sorrowed Souls. The plight of those less fortunate than the average citizen is well portrayed in this timely novel. It’s gut-wrenchingly real.
Amy Pickens, the girl with the strawberry birthmark, endures not only a mother totally thoughtless concerning her needs, but also a vicious rape. When her father dies, she finds out that a large trust has been provided for her, and suddenly her life changes.
But not only Amy, and not always for the better - the author portrays many such human dramas, especially with mega-rich families whose heads have been turned by wealth. I found myself caught by the realism of their insensitivity, particularly with Gus. His rise from anonymity among brothers who’d spent their lives rejecting him is well portrayed, as is his decline.
It’s a great relief that Youngerman doesn’t moralize – she simply tells a story, recording opinions and actions without judgment. This is refreshing change from much current opinion concerning, for instance, the homeless.
If one single word can describe this moving drama, it is ‘hope’: the main characters all seem, at times, hopeless and inadequate, run over by life’s circumstances or their own inadequacy, but ‘hope springs eternal’ in this moving account, and the way the final chapters wrap up so many conflicts and misunderstandings is well put across. Youngerman’s mission of ‘Fiction with a Purpose’ is well-served in Sorrowed Souls.
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Review by Peggy Sue Yarber
Title: Sorrowed Souls
Author: Brenda Youngerman
Publisher: Eloquent Books
Release Date: 2009
ISBN: 978-1-60860-733-4
Amazon Link
Genre: (and sub-genre) Fiction, Relationships, Beliefs systems, Personal Choices, Addictions
William Blake in his simple yet provocative statement concerning personal enlightenment encapsulates the general theme of the story, “…taking full responsibility for your own life.” From the beginning page the characters are slammed against the reality of losing absolutely everything in a split second. Their very own emotions become a weapon to be used against them on a daily basis.
Interested in severe life struggles - this story and characters will appeal to your sense of perseverance and conquest. The life learning lessons though frayed and unraveling do not ever disintegrate into nothingness. The souls of the characters become a tapestry of interwoven threads of past, present and future.
The story drives the characters. Brenda Youngerman in the footsteps of Leslie Marmon Silko uses a similar sense of time and space as a literary device and in turn this manner also defines characters in order to propel forward the story. This type of approach allows for the intriguing idea that no one character is more important than another because the emotionalism of the character is a righteous struggle to preserve sanity and dignity of the story. The struggle is fodder for a sanguine ending for an emotionally draining book.
Youngerman constantly puts forth throughout the story the concept everyone deserves a second chance plus one more chance. Never give up is an anthem screamed by each character though some scream louder than others. The characters are heavily in despair yet this pessimistic presence does not stop a few who are willing to extend a hand of help and comfort. The golden rule to treat others as you wish to be treated is practiced as well as the platinum rule to treat people the way they deserve even if they do not believe they deserve to be treated with love, care and value.
Faceless people are given significance, a name, food and a place to live. There are callous and ruthless consequences for the choices made by the characters. The characters for the most part will admit it was their choice to take the purposeful destructive walk to reach the end of their path. Their traveling was not a mishap or mistake.
Numerous times the characters see no way out. For example, the motherhood role is vital for the story. At least two of the characters express how poorly their own mothers were at showing love and affection. Knowing and realizing this they in turn mother their children in the same merciless fashion and do not even question why the same cycle continues. The tragedy they perpetuate makes them powerless to change completely. The tapestry is untangling and the loose ends are damaged but the remaining fabric is intact – there still is a chance.
The frequency surrounding the characters is not healthy. Knowledge does not initiate action for the characters it is the passion that influences the action to unleash their personal transformation. Once the characters are able to live in the present and to accept their own soul the more productive they seem to become. The innocence is a high commodity and it is needed to see the joy of a world that has long lost its sheen.
The ending of the story demonstrates the inspiration of one has the ability to sway others and that is exactly how Youngerman halts the story. The characters now tell the story instead of allowing the story to define them.
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Review by Erin Schmidt
Don’t let the name fool you; Sorrowed Souls by Brenda Youngerman is not unrelentingly sorrowful. Though each of the characters undergoes his or her own trial in life, this is primarily a book of hope. The characters overcome their various sorrows because they know the value of friendship and family and learn to help one another.
The main character is Bryan Tines. When we meet Bryan, he’s working hard at his real estate development job. Maybe too hard; he misses his own anniversary. Workaholic Bryan quickly realizes the mistake he’s made, but when he gets home, it’s too late. What happens to Bryan and to his family is a mystery that hangs over much of the novel.
The next time we see Bryan, he’s out on the streets. Homeless. He doesn’t know what to do or where to go; he doesn’t even remember his own name. He might not have survived if it weren’t for the intervention of a tall, aging homeless man who goes by Gus.
Youngerman goes into great detail to describe the circumstances that brought Gus to the streets, though he was once a successful lawyer and came from a wealthy background. We get to know Gus’s life story as thoroughly as we do Bryan’s and that of Bryan’s wife, Amber.
The exploration of what might cause homelessness is interesting, especially in this economy in which many families have lost their homes. That would be interesting enough to make this novel worth reading, but Sorrowed Souls is a richer and more complex than that. It’s also a relationship story about Bryan and Amber that breaks the relationship down to its most basic building blocks. Few novelists are able to sustain a narrative this complicated while keeping the story compellingly readable. Virginia Woolf is one of them; Brenda Youngerman is another. Readers who pick up Sorrowed Souls will be richly rewarded.
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Review by Carter Martina
What would you do if you woke up on the streets and couldn’t remember who you were and how you got there? That is what Bryan wakes up to in Brenda Youngerman’s Sorrowed Souls. In Sorrowed Souls Bryan wakes up on the street and Gus, the “sheriff” of the street people takes him under his wing. Youngerman takes our rose colored glasses off and gives a real-life look at what life on the streets is like.. She goes a step further by showing us what transpired in the life of these people that lead them to become lost and homeless. Youngerman writes such an amazingly real story that I kept having to remind myself this is fiction. That is the mark of a truly gifted writer. She opens your eyes and makes you see street people in a whole new way. I work in a place where I pass homeless people and pan handlers several times during the day. My hear goes out to most of them, but occasionally I come across one that doesn’t look obviously homeless, in fact they look like high school or college students that are looking to make a few bucks off the generousity of others. Having many homeless in our area that truly need help and goodwill from their fellow man, it always makes me angry to see the posers. After reading this book, I feel guilty about that, because I don’t know their story and I shouldn’t make assumptions based on appearance. Sorrowed Souls is aptly titled. It is a book filled with sorrow. It is the story of people who grow up unwanted and unloved and how they deal with and sometimes don’t deal with life. It reminds us that any of us could be the one to wake up on the street. It reminds us to look past the outer appearance. It reminds us that we are not always the architects of our own lives and yet at the same time every decision we make carries with it a consequence. Youngerman’s book is sad and heart wrenching. It is not an easy book to read and yet it is so well written and so compelling it is a book everyone should read. We all want to read the happy books, the adventures, the love stories and we often shy away from those that make us think and open our eyes to the world around us.. We want the warm fuzzy and feel good books. Amidst the darkness in this book there is light and at the end you are left with a sense of hope, but it is a hard journey. A journey many will shy away from because it’s not easy, and that is the very reason this book is a must read. It opens your mind to the human condition and the harsh realities of the world around us. The most amazing thing to me about the way Youngerman writes is that there is no judgment. Again this is one of her gifts. As humans it is our nature to judge and it’s something that permeates everything we do. To write a compelling and honest look at people society wants to forget without placing any type of judgment on those characters sets a beautiful example for us all. This book gets five out of five life lessons.
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BOOK TITLE: Sorrowed Souls
AUTHOR: Brenda Youngerman
Review by Lauri Crumley Coates
There's a segment of the population here in the United States that is basically invisible. That would be the homeless people. Of course, we know they aren't actually invisible. But its pretty much human nature to walk past and ignore them. After all, lots of them are drunks, drug addicts or crazy, right? Because normal people just don't live that way. As a former social worker, I know from firsthand experience that lots of perfectly normal people do end up homeless. In today's economy, we all know people just a paycheck or two away from that situation.
Brenda Youngerman has crafted a novel that takes the reader right to the heart of that world. With a fine eye to detail, she deftly draws for us a group of people, just average people, who find themselves in a pit of despair and hopelessness.
There's Bryan Tines, family man with a beautiful wife, lovely kids, a great house, the job he always dreamed....living that great American dream. A moment later, it's gone. Bryan has no recollection of who he is, where he came from or how he ended up dirty and sleeping outdoors. He could easily have died of hunger or exposure, or he could have become a victim of violence. Another man on the street, Gus Hill, takes Bryan under his wing, helping him to survive.
Gus Hill knows his name. He knows where he came from, and he knows just how far he has fallen. Born into a family of financial means, he led a charmed life, until a problem with alcohol took him over the edge. Gus knows what matters in life, but he's also learned that climbing out of the pit of homelessness is much, much tougher than falling in.
And there's Amy Pickens. Born into a working class family, her parents planned for her birth. She was so wanted. Her father loved her unconditionally from the moment she existed in his wife's womb. Some births are harder than others. Amy's was a rough one. And some women really aren't meant to be mothers. Amy's mother, Maggie, was one of those women. She never let Amy forget how hard that birth had been, and how Amy had ruined her mother's life and her chances of happiness. Amy was nothing but a burden to Maggie. She had a rough and unhappy childhood and the teen years were even worse. Maggie couldn't or wouldn't love her, but could Amy learn to love herself?
Brenda Youngerman has given her characters life. You care about them, and find yourself rooting for them. She's written a novel that gives the reader a gritty true to life clarity about the plight of the homeless in our country. A thought provoking and very satisfying book, with characters I will always remember. I can't recommend this book highly enough, and look forward to reading more work by this talented and wonderful writer.
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