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For love or money - Book Review
Ebony, Sept, 2003
WHAT'S a family to do? Mother's been dead for six years, and now her resting place is about to get plowed for profits. A new supermarket is coming. And family members are going on a journey to Arizona in a stolen pickup truck to retrieve the body. Oh, yes, and that treasure trove of jewels that might have been buried with her.
In her debut novel, GETTING MOTHER'S BODY (Random House, $23.95), Suzan-Lori Parks has deftly used her Pulitzer Prize-winning playwriting skills (see Author Spotlight, page 30) to create characters so original and quirky, they seem to leap right off the page. There's Billy Beede, the 16-year-old daughter of the deceased Willa Mae, who's long on attitude and carrying an illegitimate child. There's Billy's uncle, a minister who's lost his church--and the voice of God in his ear--and her one-legged aunt. It is their search for salvation that brings these characters to a final confrontation at the grave site that changes their fate. Varied points of view and a layered story give us a striking look at what this family values.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
