Earl, Honey

“Ever since Pa hit him in the head with the two-by-four, Earl had lived with blinders on. Not real blinders, of course, because that would be foolish. It was his own brain that blinkered him.”

EARL HAHN is slow, the last one to catch on to things. Since the day his father hit him in the head with a 2x4 of loblolly pine, he’s struggled with a “thickness in his brain.” It takes him longer to make the connections others arrive at easily. When his father is prosecuted for the crime of incest, it feels like deliverance for Earl, his mother Lizzie Belle, and the entire Hahn family. Unfortunately, his father’s abhorrent actions are not done exacting a price. Everyone in the household will pay for their patriarch’s crimes – no one more than Earl.

So begins a powerful coming-of-age tale about a shy, damaged boy who must overcome unimaginable personal tragedy – both as its victim and its perpetrator. Raw, honest, and filled with heart, Earl, Honey recounts an extraordinary search for redemption amid the perilous world of the 1920s American South.

This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with DartFrog Books.

Book club questions for Earl, Honey by D S Getson

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Is Lizzie Belle a good mother to her children? Explain why or why not.

The Old Testament refers to “sins of the fathers” passing from one generation to the next. How do the iniquities of Reinhardt Hahn have consequences for his children?

In Chapter 17, Earl struggles to make sense of undercurrents at the Randolph Farm. “He looks into Mr. Randolph’s eyes and his pa looks back. And Earl knows he’s seeing the true man. And Mr. Randolph knows that he’s been seen.” How is Mr. Randolph similar to Earl’s father? How is he different?

In Chapter 21, Earl did not want to go to “his new place.” What do you think his future would have been if Mrs. Hazel had departed without him?

Mrs. Hazel tells Earl that if individuals do not have a purpose in life, they are likely to become “a pest to society.” What does she mean by this?

Mrs. Phipps tells Earl “the world needs all our gifts.” What are Earl’s gifts?

Historians refer to the decade of the 1920s as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age. Does anything about these social and cultural legacies align with Earl’s experience growing up in the rural South?

Consider your own purpose, your own gifts. How might this shape the narrative of your own coming-of-age story?

Instead of the plants – common chickweed, sourwood and American holly – that form a metaphor for Earl’s coming of age, what symbols would you choose to illustrate your own journey?

Earl, Honey Book Club Questions PDF

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