Getting Mother's Body

A Novel

By: Suzan-Lori Parks

Narrated by: Suzan-Lori Parks

Billy Beede, the teenage daughter of the fast-running, no-account, and six-years-dead Willa Mae, comes home one day to find a fateful 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 Willa Mae’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 an illegitimate child, Billy knows that treasure could mean salvation. So she steals Dill’s pickup truck and, with her aunt and uncle in tow, heads 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 lot more worthwhile.

The enormously accomplished fiction debut from Suzan-Lori Parks, the 2002 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Getting Mother’s Body takes its place in the company of the classic works of Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. But when it comes to an ingenious, uproarious knack for depicting the trifling, hard-luck, down-and-out souls who need a little singing and laughing and lying and praying to get through the day, Suzan-Lori Parks shares the stage with no one.

This is what audible is meant to be

Occasionally I listen to a book that I feel is made immensely more enjoyable by being heard as compared to being read. This is one such book. Suzan-Lori Parks has written an excellent book and has acted as an exceptional narrator/singer.

For those just wanting an interesting story, this book has that. I was very curious as to how the author was going to resolve the conflicts in the book, and I was not disappointed. If you like character sketches, you will be delighted in this book. Even if the story had not been interesting, I would have been immensely pleased just to listen to each of her characters speak. If you are a literary person and love a story uniquely told with layers to be explored, this book will interest you as well -- after all Getting Mother's Body does require some digging. I think it would be a great book for a group discussion!

Beautiful, heart-wrenching, subtle

I can't understand the narrow-mindedness of some of the reviews above. This is not John Grisham or Danielle Steele. This is equisitely-written, subtle and beautiful character portraits and a fully-realized, 3-dimensional plot with real lives and real people. Don't expect an action flick or a cheesy romance. There's a reason she won the Pullitzer Prize.

Just a warning...

Just so you aren't surprised (as I was), the entire book, other than the singing, is narrated in the first person by the author as a variety of poor, southern black folk in the early 1960's. It is humorous, and the diiference in point of view between the older characters and younger characters, particularly as to the evolving racial and social issues of the time, is quite interesting. At first I was somewhat put off by the narrative style, but it grew on me as I came to know the characters' personalities.

Interesting

I enjoyed this audiobook very much. The characters were very interesting and the narration was excellent.

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this one...it felt like a priveleged insight into the lives of people so different from myself. The main character's "matter-of-fact" attitude toward her unfortunate circumstances somehow inspired me. I like anything that helps me expand my attitudes.