Getting Mother's Body
Getting Mother's Body
Getting Mother's Body
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Description
Description
The debut novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is a gutsy, funny, tragic and completely original work for fans of William Faulkner and Alice Walker.
In the 1950s, in a small southern town in the US, the Beedes are the lowest of the low. Always struggling, they remain shackled by poverty and their own lack of ambition. Everyone, but sixteen-year-old Billie Beede.
Billy Beede has big ideas about her life. She's had the Beede misfortune to get pregnant by an itinerant coffin salesman. And when he proves to have a wife and seven kids in another town, she determines to try her luck elsewhere. The answer seems to be in the hem of her mother's dress, her mother who died ten years ago. The rumour is that Willa Mae - a Billie Holiday look-alike - was the only Beede who made good, and was buried with a pearl necklace and a diamond ring sewn into the hem of her dress.
Billie - and all her relatives - aim to get their hands on this treasure and make something of themselves. What follows is a mad road trip that evokes shades of Faulkner - in its potent earthiness - but also has the approachability and warmth of novels like The Colour Purple. This is a fantastic debut novel from an accomplished and well-loved American playwright.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
-- Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls
" A cheerful tack across deep Faulknerian waters."
-- "The New York Times Book Review"
" The kind of story that sneaks up on you and makes you care about the characters and what happens to them."
-- "USA Today"
" Even minor characters are vivid and unforgettable. . . . [The] chorus of voices . . . tells the interwoven story of Willa Mae and her daughter with such flair and harmony that I was compelled to keep reading,""
-- The Washington Post"
" Of course Suzan-Lori Parks can write a mean patch of dialogue . . . but the real treat here is watching Parks experiment with setting. . . . [She is] a master of pitch and mood."
-- "Entertainment Weekly"
" With material steeped in the dark side of American history and a rare gift for the vernacular, [Parks is] the sort of provocateur one might get by crossing William Faulkner with Richard Pryor. . . . Parks' s dialogue rings ribald and jazzy."
-- "Vogue"
A splendid and joyous American novel."
-- "Elle"
" There' s jazz and spunk in the writing here, tremendous humor that ultimately yields to tenderness."
-- "Book" magazine "Suzan-Lori Parks is a terrific writer whose characters don't so much talk to us as sing, full-throated, of their joys and miseries."
--Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls
"A cheerful tack across deep Faulknerian waters."
--"The New York Times Book Review"
"The kind of story that sneaks up on you and makes you care about the characters and what happens to them."
--"USA Today"
"Even minor characters are vivid and unforgettable. . . . [The] chorus of voices . . . tells the interwoven story of Willa Mae and her daughter with such flair and harmony that I was compelled to keep reading.""
--The Washington Post"
"Of course Suzan-Lori Parks can write a mean patch of dialogue . . . but the real treat here is watching Parks experiment with setting. . . . [She is] a master of pitch and mood."
--"Entertainment Weekly"
"With material steeped in the dark side of American history and a rare gift for the vernacular, [Parks is] the sort of prov
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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