Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Storyteller
Review: I listened to Ms. Parks reading on cd. I loved the story and loved hearing her orignal songs. It is a great experince for those who love audio books or for those needing a wonderful distraction during rush hour.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended by a librarian in Houston
Review: I read this fiction work on the recommendation of another librarian in Houston, and I was surprisingly won over by it. Suzan-Lori Parks is a terrific writer. Her characters don't so much as talk as sing to us, like a blues song, of their joys and miseries. Even if you don't care much for fiction, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!,
Review: I was a little hesitant in buying this book but I'm so glad I took a chance because this book was truly a literary work of art. It is obvious to see why Ms. Parks received so many accolades. She truly brings the characters to life---Ms. Parks is truly imaginative.
Rating:
Summary: From rags to riches
Review: Legend has it that Willa Mae Beede (pronounced Bead) was buried with her fortune. Her teenage, pregnant daughter Billy aims to get this treasure to help her out of a bad situation.June and Teddy Beede raised Billy the best they could after Willa Mae's death. June and Teddy live in a trailer behind the gas station that they manage. They didn't have much to offer Billy materially but they could give her love. Billy found out she was in the 'family way' with hopes of marrying the baby's father. Only he forgot to tell her one thing; he is already married. When Billy finds out she is hurt and angry. Candy, Billy's cousin, who owns a motel and allowed the family to bury Willa Mae on her property, sends Billy a letter letting her know that she sold part of the property her mother is buried on. If Billy wants to move the body she has to come and get it before the first of the month. Billy sees this as the perfect opportunity to get the 'treasure' that was buried with her mother. Suzan Lori Parks writes a story that is made for the movies. June, Teddy & Billy's efforts to get a treasure that they are not sure is even there is heart warming and funny at times. Ms. Parks weaves an interesting tale of family, love, and togetherness with a few twists. This is a good book that I would rank up there with Mama Day and Women of Brewster Place. Tracey R.E.A.L Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT FICTION DEBUT
Review: Ms. Park's work is notorious here in NYC so I rushed out to purchase her first novel and I WAS NOT disappointed! Engaging from the start, Ms. Parks created characters that peak your interest, I wanted to sit down with Dill and LOOK at this person! All the characters are deep and well developed for a story that I found to be WAAAAAY too short. The tale comes full circle, with enough drama in between.
Unforgettable characters, deep, emotionally charged plot.... this one hits high marks on the recommendation scale!
Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've read in Years
Review: One of those books you can not put down. I don't want to repeat what others have said. What I can tell you is that after being in a book group for over a year, this was the first book I actually finished early. I went to the Library to see if she had writen any others but she hadn't. She is a Playwright and
amazon sells them. We have Book club book bags at our library and this was one of them. When I read this book I could realy see the characters clearly, her descriptions were poetry. I felt I could feel there tears almost smell them. Keep writing Suzan-Lori your wonderful. Teach me to write like that. When will you have another play? Anyone seen any of them? Just Wonderful!!
Rating:
Summary: Setting: racist Texas. Set-up: pregnant teen on the loose
Review: Outrageously outrageous debut novel by a Pulitzer Prize winning playwrite. Getting Mother's Body means just what it says: Momma's grave is about to be plowed under for a mall, and rumor has it that there's a fortune buried with her. So her daughter, protagonist and pregnant teen Billy Beede, sets off to find Momma and dig her up for the loot.
A sense of immediacy, of being right in the middle of the action of this laugh-out-loud book, is enhanced by the multiple first-person points of view in which the story is told. With electric and eccentric dialogue and perspective, Parks takes her readers on a hilarious car trip across rigidly segregated (and opinionated) Texas during the turbulent and sometimes dangerous 60s, dangerous especially if you're black in a redneck culture.
Rating:
Summary: If Mother Only Knew...
Review: 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:
Summary: On a Mission
Review: Some might say that Billy Beede has been cursed by being born into Beedism. Her family has a history of tribulations, and her situation only adds to them when she becomes pregnant by Snipes, a man who is neither her husband nor a man with Billy's best interests in mind. In order for Billy to rectify her situation, she and the other Beede's, Roosevelt, her uncle, and June, her one-legged aunt, embark on a journey in a stolen truck to the small town of LaJunta, Arizona, looking for buried treasure that just happened to buried with her mother Willa Mae's body. Or so accroding to Dill, Willa Mae's former lover and the one who lay her to rest. However, Dill has other plans for Billy, whom she considers a nuisance and a living reminder of Willa Mae. Filled with shenanigans, laugh-out-loud moments, and heartbreaking reflections, GETTING MOTHER'S BODY is a fabulous entrance for Parks into the novel-writing arena. A Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Parks has given life to such gems as Topdog/Underdog (2002) and Venus (1997). I am comfortable adding GETTING MOTHER'S BODY to this list of fine works, and adamantly desire Parks' continuance in writing novels.
Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Rollick
Review: Susan-Lori Parks' Getting Mother's Body is an entertaining story of Billy Beede, a pregnant sixteen year old who is convinced that she must travel from Texas to Arizona and dig up her mother's grave to claim the jewels she is buried with. The only problem is, she has no money and no way of getting there. How she gets there, and the people she lies to, cheats on, and cons make up this uproarious read. Parks' novel is narrated by a number of characters, some central, some not and its just a fun, funny read. Parks is certainly creative and a skilled writer. Have fun with this one.
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