You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes: A Memoir

by Laura Love

Laura Love has an uncanny knack for getting an audience to listen. Today she is beloved by fans around the world for her funk-folksy music. But Love's life wasn't always so good. Growing up in racially troubled Nebraska, Love survived a miserable childhood, shuffling among a mentally unstable mother, foster homes, and orphanages. Despite the odds, Love survived, thanks ultimately to her enormous will. You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes is Love's wrenching, shocking, yet hopeful story of the survival of a deeply rooted, but broadly cultured woman.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2004

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I loved her voice before I loved her words. After seeing Laura Love in person many times and listening to her music...this was the frosting on the cake... I loved this book of her early life and what she did (with the help of social services) to claw her way out of a pretty tough upbringing. Even tho it was sad by middle class and even low income standards...it was funny. Her writing was so pure and honest......just like her voice.

[AnitaDurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent memoir, really humbling, and i highly recommend it for anyone. it's a quick read, but emotionally substantial. it made me want to go out and listen to love's music also.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely biased review here but I am so happy that I read this! I am not a person of color so that's an entire world and experience that I will never know and can't relate to. Everything else about this book read like chapters out of my own diary and it was sometimes difficult sometimes enlightening to get through. It's also helped me weed out some memories to work through. I am envious of her for reaching such a healthy emotional state and clarity through everything. I am also so proud of her for being able to tell us her truth even when that meant being honest about her own shortcomings. I am going to go buy my own copy of it now (read it through the library) to keep on my shelves.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Love's memoir about growing up with a mentally ill mother and living in and out of the system is heartbreaking but triumphant. Love's willingness to open herself up and reveal what she feels are some of her greatest mistakes, humiliating circumstances, and just her sheer humanity make her a compelling writer. Another great example of human perseverance. She has my full respect for both her talent and her strength.

[Turquoise Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick & easy read. Their childhoods of non stop having to be adults as children was painful but familiar to read.

[RYCJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotta respect that opening. The writing is crisp, direct, and once I managed the cringing, clandestinely realizing how much Laura seemed to be picking up from her mother, the humor burgeoned, mellowing an otherwise harrowing account of a marred childhood.

Glaciers' of soul is written all over this memoir. Anyone can sing a song, but not everyone can synthesize sullen stanzas and create as much harmony as in, 'You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes.' ...And that ending... that ending is to savor. C-bass tenor to my ears. "...She did the best she could with what she had to work with." - Loved it.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A loving, heroic and sometimes hysterical account of an odyssey of a sometimes frighteningly irrational childhood. With a brilliant soundtrack:
http://www.amazon.com/You-Aint-Got-Ea...

[Ken McDouall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting memoir from this very talented singer-songwriter, focused on her childhood dealing with the racism of 1960s Nebraska and the challenges of dealing with a single-parent schizophrenic mother.

[Jennybeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Love has always managed to tell a powerful story in her music, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she's good with autobiography, too. The level of forgiveness and hope that she has managed to embrace is pretty awe-inspiring.

[Tama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out Ms. Love's teriffic and maddening memoir and please give her music your ear..a passionate artist worth hearing...

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been listening to Laura Love sing locally with her amazing voice for well over a decade and was greatly moved by this account of her growing up in Nebraska. A beautiful memoir.

[Rosalind M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very well written, but I wish she had given us more closure about the incident with which she started her account.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story of a young girl's survival growing up on the edge of homelessness to become a successful professional singer/songwriter.