What do You think about Getting Mother's Body (2015)?
Getting Mother's Body (2003) was the debut novel written by Suzan-Lori Parks, who won the 2002 Pulitizer Prize for Drama for her play called Topdog/Underdog, and also won a MacArthur genius grant in 2001.I mention the fact that she's a playwright first because then it's no surprise when I insist that Parks has a real talent for writing dialog. That's important in a novel, especially to us sub-vocalizers, and these particular characters do not talk or act like the people living next door to most of us. This is Texas in 1963, and the protagonist is a 16 year old girl, Billy Beede, who is orphaned, very poor, and pregnant, with the added burden of being African-American in a segregationist time.Billy's mother, Willa Mae, has been dead for six years, buried by her lover with a pearl necklace and a diamond ring. When Billy receives a letter letting her know that her mother's burial place is about to be paved over and that she should collect the body, Billy decides to go on a quest for the "treasure," the jewelry she could sell for money she so desperately needs. Meanwhile, Willa Mae's lover, Dill, is determined not to let the digging happen.This is the story of how a whole family is drawn into joining this search, each with her own dreams about how one could start over or improve her life, if only she had a little of that treasure. The story is told in turns by each one of them, so that Getting Mother's Body is a collection of interesting character sketches that all come together with a little surprise at the end. I enjoyed the journey and liked the ending.
—Sharyl
Acclaimed playwright’s first novel is a slightly skewed, wacky story with real enough emotion about a poor Texan family and their quirks. The Mother in the title was a raucous-living blues singer who lived with a woman passing as a man for awhile. She’s buried in Arizona, supposedly with valuable jewelry, and her daughter—desperate for an abortion after being impregnated by a married man—wants to dig her up before a development project tears up the grave at her Aunt’s hotel. It’s a race to Arizona involving, family, greed, secrets, love, and understanding. Part farce, part drama, it is an interesting book. I felt that the author poked a little too much mean-spirited fun at poor folks, like she didn’t really empathize with her characters, but made them the butt of her jokes. But maybe I don’t know or didn’t get it.
—Ryan Mishap
what a fun read it was, with great characters and an premise that cracked me up. Funny thing is that I kept seeing Billy Beede as trailer park white, when this is more like Faulkner with an African American re-write. I later found out that though this is the author's first novel, she wrote an award winning play, which explains why the dialog was so good that it begged to be read out loud.From the PublisherBilly Beede, the teenage daughter of the fast-running, no count -- and six years dead -- Willa Mae, comes home one day and finds a letter waiting for her: Willa Mae's burial spot in LaJunta, Arizona is about to be plowed up to make way for a supermarket.As Willa Mae's only daughter, Billy is heiress to her mother's substantial, but unconfirmed, fortune -- a cache of jewels that her mother's lover, Dill Smiles, is said to have buried with her. Dirt poor, living in a trailer with her Aunt June and Uncle Roosevelt behind a gas station in a tumbleweedy Texas town, and pregnant with a fatherless child, Billy sees hope and opportunity in the buried treasure. So she steals Dill's pickup truck and, with her Aunt and Uncle in tow, heads out for Arizona with Dill in hot pursuit. While everyone agrees it's only polite to speak of getting mother's body and moving her to a proper resting place -- it's well understood that digging up Willa Mae's diamonds and pearls will make the whole trip a little more worth while.About the AuthorSuzan-Lori Parks is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for "Topdog/Underdog." She is a playwright and screenwriter whose other plays include "Fucking A," "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World," "The Sinners Place," "Devotees in the Garden of Love," Betting on the Dust Commander," Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom" (1990 Obie Award for Best New American Play), "The America Play," "Venus" (1996 Obie Award), and "In the Blood." Her first feature film was "Girl 6," directed by Spike Lee. She is currently working on an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel PARADISE. She has been a playwriting professor at universities around the country including The Yale School of Drama and she currently runs the Dramatic Writing Program at Cal Arts. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
—bookczuk
