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Title: Getting Mother's Body : A Novel by Suzan-Lori Parks ISBN: 1-4000-6022-2 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: If Mother Only Knew...
Comment: Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks's debut novel, Getting Mother's Body, has an affinity to William Faulkner's classic, As I Lay Dying, only this time, Parks has flipped the script in a couple of areas. First, instead of taking a body home to be buried, the characters are planning to exhume the remains of one 'high-strung, party girl/singer', Willa Mae Beede; and secondly, the characters are African American, the setting is 1963 rural Texas, and the lead character is Billy Beede, a poor pregnant, unwed, high school dropout.
After her mother's (Willa Mae) untimely demise, Billy returns to Lincoln by her mother's lesbian lover, Dill Smiles, to live with her maternal uncle, Roosevelt, and his wife, June, in their trailer behind a gas station. Billy becomes pregnant by a married man and believes an abortion will solve all of her problems. To get the money for the procedure, she plans a journey back to Arizona to recover the small fortune (a pearl necklace and diamond ring) which according to Dill adorns Willa Mae's corpse. Billy is accompanied by an eccentric cast of characters, each with selfish desires for the treasure, each hoping it will 'fill a hole.' These 'holes' run deep ranging from pride, envy, debt to lust, unrequited love, childlessness, and spiritual loss. Billy becomes an expert in recognizing 'holes,' i.e. finding one's weaknesses, and uses her 'gift' to manipulate her family and strangers to get what she wants'unknowingly becoming more like the con artist mother that she despises.
This novel, told in first person by each lead character, causes the reader to experience the journey from differing viewpoints. Often times, the chapters represent character perspectives of the same event granting the reader the opportunity to 'hear' multiple sides of the story. The author even interjects observations, blues songs, and ominous passages by the deceased Willa Mae. The use of monologues allows the reader to learn firsthand each character's motivation, vulnerabilities, and haunted pasts; these elements contributed to the novel's well developed characters. This reviewer also enjoyed the writing style and the extensive use of regional dialect to add realism to the dialogue.
Without a clue on how this story was going to end until the end, I was happy that the journey ultimately brought about some semblance of absolution and redemption for the motley crew, which was a welcomed relief for an otherwise dismal tale. There is a lot more to this story than this review covers; one has to read to appreciate all the author has to offer. Ms. Parks shows great promise and if you enjoy deviating from the 'relationship drama' of modern contemporary fiction, you may enjoy this book. I think readers who enjoyed eclectic works like Lolita Files's Child of God and Olympia Vernon's Eden might appreciate this novel.
Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
Rating: 4
Summary: A successful dark literary comedy
Comment: Detailing the adventures of Billy Beede and her non-traditional family on their quest from Texas to Arizona to get "treasure" buried with Billy's mother in order to fund an abortion for Billy's "bigged" belly (by a married, custom coffin maker), Suzan-Lori Parks' first novel is intelligent, well-written and enjoyable.
While the plot is darkly comic and compelling, the real pleasure of this book is the writing which is full of wonderfully emotional descriptions but is not overblown. Parks accurately depicts snapshots of scenes with visually stimulating language leaving you with images of doctor's office's floors or flour soiled dresses creating a book that plays like a film inside your head.
Parks' technique of showing a different character's point of view in each short chapter (twenty characters contribute their first person accounts along the journey) allows for a deep understanding of each player from Billy's one-legged Aunt to Billy's mother's lesbian-passing-as-a-man lover. Even Billy's dead mother, Willa Mae, speaks through her left-behind blues songs lyrics and a well-taught scam for making quick cash. Parks has fully developed these folks, right down to their Hurston-esque speech patterns, and her knack for snappy, flowing dialogue is wonderful.
Not as heavy as The Color Purple, but reminiscent of its style and character development, and capturing a Faulknerian sense of place, Getting Mother's Body may make itself a spot alongside other important works of fiction for its literary beauty and originality.
Rating: 5
Summary: PURE ENTERTAINMENT
Comment: I agree with the reader from Mobile, AL. Getting Mother's Body along with ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere are two of the freshest, most exciting works of African American fiction that I have come across in years. They're also two of the best books I've bought this year. Both books (Packer's is a collection of short stories) eschews the common girlfriends/black-men-are-no-good themes of most comtemporary black writers like McMillan and shy away from more cerebral themes like Morrison or Walker. Instead this is fiction, straight forward fiction meant to entertian, that just so happens to have black main characters.
Getting Mother's Body, like McMillan's Day Late and a Dollar Short, is told from the POV of several characters with the purposeful use of bad grammar. Although some grammatical purists may find it difficult to get into the novel for that reason, I felt it lent an honest and real voice to the characters. Not everyone says "are not" instead of "ain't" or "going to" instead of "gonna". Personally, I found the purposeful use of bad grammar more difficlut to follow in McMillan's Day Late... than Getting Mother's Body.
I won't go into the particulars of the novel as so many others have. What I will say is that this is a breezy, fast and fun read. Parks is a vivid storyteller and her images scroll across your mind like a well paced movie. Pick this up and see for yourself. Pure, unadulterated fun.
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Title: Love by TONI MORRISON ISBN: 0375409440 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Alex Awards (Awards)) by ZZ Packer ISBN: 1573222348 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 10 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do by PEARL CLEAGE ISBN: 0345456068 Publisher: One World/Ballantine Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Known World by Edward P. Jones ISBN: 0060557540 Publisher: Amistad Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks ISBN: 1559362014 Publisher: Theatre Communications Group Pub. Date: 04 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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