Getting Mother's Body

Rating:
Summary: All's Well That Ends Well
Review: "Where my panties at?" are the great opening lines of this wondrous comic novel; but you "aint seen nothing" yet. The critics insist on saying Ms. Parks is influenced here by William Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING, something I don't see much of although I did hear her in an interview recently say nice things about Faulkner. Ms. Parks is certainly a classy lady.

And she has written a classy novel. Billy Beede, named after Billie Holiday in spite of the spelling of her first name, is sixteen, unmarried and pregnant. She is joined by a host of other motley characters: Dill Smiles. . . "the most honest person I know, even if she ain't nothing but a bulldagger." Then there's Roosevelt Beede, a minister who no longer preaches; his wife June Flowers Beede, who only has one leg; Laz Jackson, named for Lazarus in the New Testament because he was born not breathing, who wants to marry Billy even though he is not the father of her unborn child--actually he's still a virgin when the novel begins--and of course Willa Mae Beede, Billy's mother and Dill's former lover, who is now in her grave and may have been buried with previous gems. There are several other minor characters, just as interesting, not the least of which is Homer Beede Rochfoucault, the son of a Morehouse man and a Spelman graduate. There's also a sympathetic white deputy sheriff, someone we might not expect to find in 1963, the year this novel takes place.

Told from several points of view-- perhaps the writer is influenced by Faulkner after all-- the novel ultimately is about the importance of family. These characters-- most of them either dirt poor or, in the case of Homer and his mother, people who have suffered a reversal of fortune-- are as strong as the state of Texas. Like Faulkner's Dilsey in THE SOUND AND THE FURY, they endure.

That Ms. Parks first made her mark as a dramatist-- she won the Pulitzer for her play TOPDOG/UNDERDOG-- is obvious from the language here as one dialogue builds on another.

For all these characters' misfortunes-- and they suffer many-- you will feel good about the ending of this story. Billy says: "Going back home we made good time. I think we did all right." Ms. Parks does much better than "all right" in this poignant, bittersweet novel.

Rating:
Summary: A successful dark literary comedy
Review: 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:
Summary: Fun, Adventurous novel
Review: Full of gossip and adventure, Getting Mother's Body is the story of a few small-town folks with big dreams. Billy Beede, the daughter of six-years dead Willa Mae Beede finds herself in this novel. Pregnant and given a deadline of one week, Billy needs abortion money fast. Uncle and aunt in tow, they set off on a mission that leads from Texas to Arizona to dig up Willa Mae's body and the rumored treasure that was buried with her. Along the way this sad group of Beedes reminise over the life and tragic death of Willa Mae and how their own lifes have changed over the years. Dill Smiles, Willa Mae's lover, has a secret of her own though, and with murder on her mind sets off hot on Billy's trail.

This book was a really fun read. I enjoyed each and every page. Good authors make their characters real and Parks does this grandly, I could even feel the Arizona heat and Texas dust. Don't browse over this novel. Superb!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, Adventurous novel
Review: Full of gossip and adventure, Getting Mother's Body is the story of a few small-town folks with big dreams. Billy Beede, the daughter of six-years dead Willa Mae Beede finds herself in this novel. Pregnant and given a deadline of one week, Billy needs abortion money fast. Uncle and aunt in tow, they set off on a mission that leads from Texas to Arizona to dig up Willa Mae's body and the rumored treasure that was buried with her. Along the way this sad group of Beedes reminise over the life and tragic death of Willa Mae and how their own lifes have changed over the years. Dill Smiles, Willa Mae's lover, has a secret of her own though, and with murder on her mind sets off hot on Billy's trail.

This book was a really fun read. I enjoyed each and every page. Good authors make their characters real and Parks does this grandly, I could even feel the Arizona heat and Texas dust. Don't browse over this novel. Superb!

Rating:
Summary: Okay but not great
Review: Getting Mother's Body doesn't live up to the rave reviews here. It is an okay book, don't get me wrong but it's too tied up in language and details to be an enjoyable read. Parks definitely has a gift, but the flowery language fell deaf on my ears. I much more enjoyed the previous readings of Sovereign Rule and The Da Vinci Code.

Rating:
Summary: It didn't turn out like we planned
Review: Great story of a simple trial and error approach to life and some lessons learned along the way. I don't know how Parks ever came up with the basis for this book, but the characters are real and fun.

Even better is the style. The characters tell the story in their own words and we get to hear everyone's thoughts about everyone else. It is a fun look at how people communicate and don't communicate and how simple events in our lives -- even casual remarks -- can change the way people think and feel for years.

I read this book in Baghdad and had to email and call home with excerpts to share. This is a tremendous personification through the eyes and words of simple -- yet complex folk.

It is also a tale about love and sacrifice and how some people place their family above even their own wishes and desires, while they face their fears that they think can threaten their very happiness.

I can't equate the picture of the author with the depth of the lessons and the quality of this book.

There are a lot of frank thoughts and comments here dealing with the issues of love, sex, communication, racism and how we deal with each other. So be warned up front. If you are used to the standard novel of third person storytelling and linear chapters then you are in for a lesson in storytelling. But stick it out, in the end you will like the style.

It is a kind of "Butterfield 8" with a southern sharecropper touch.

Thanks Suzan

-Mike

Rating:
Summary: Trying too hard?
Review: Having read "Getting Mother's Body" for a library book discussion group, I expected something out of my ordinary reading selection circle. And is it ever! I must say I enjoyed the book, though keeping characters' relationships straight was difficult--who is whose uncle? aunt? lover? brother? Furthermore, the characters' voices are simply too similar. They all sound alike, with their--pardon me for saying it--Ebonics English. Whether it is pregnant teen Billy Beede, her mother's lesbian lover's mother Candy Napoleon, or Laz Jackson, who has long has his "cap set for" Billy (despite her dislike of him), they all speak the same way--with "yr" and "I'ma" and "I says." I sometimes thought I was reading a high schooler's email! Finally, I wish authors would take the creative time to come up with original names for their characters, instead of borrowing them from previous literature. My complaint here is with Dill, the lesbian pig farmer. For me, Dill will always be the little boy from Meridian, Mississippi, in "To Kill a Mockingbird." What's to be gained from attaching that name to another character? The story line moves slowly, but is intriguing enough to keep a patient reader's interest, despite my qualifications of the way it is written.

Rating:
Summary: PURE ENTERTAINMENT
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Judge them, just ENJOY them
Review: I just discovered your website, or I would have written a year ago, when I read the book. I read an excerpt of it in Essence magazine while on a cruise in May 2003 and I bought the hard cover as soon as I got home. I give it 5 stars only because I can't give 6! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and just recently mailed it to my friend in Florida. I told her not to judge the characters-just enjoy them! Many people in the book are "mojo"-meaning 'slow' and/or ignorant but I got a kick out of each and every one of them. What a refreshing book! I'll be looking out for more novels by Ms Parks.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, classic adventure!
Review: I laughed so much while reading this story.

This is the story of 16 year old Billy Beede, a country Bumkin from Texas, who is almost 5 months pregnant. When the story begins Billy is off to be married but she discovers that the baby's daddy is already married with a family. And now the adventure begins.

Billy was raised by her Aunt and Uncle, Roosevelt and June. She was brought to them by Dill Smiles, her deceased mother's "6 foot lesiban lover. (Is it getting interesting?) Growing up, everyone in town has always talked about the treasure that Billy's mother was buried with. Aunt June and uncle Roosevelt receives a letter that they have to decided what to do with Willie Mae, Billy's mother, remains because they are about to cement over her body to build a shopping mall.

"Getting Mother's Body" is a fun story to read. You are introduced to a lot of characters that play a very important role in Billy's life. It a story of hope, dreams, wishes, love, and of course, greed. You will end up laughing and sometimes you may want to cry. But most of all you will find yourself cheering for Billy as she sets out to get her mother's body.

Congratuatlation on you first novel!

Peace and Blessings!!