Sugar

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Sugar Pub. Date: 2/1/2000 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Overview

In a debut novel that blends the rich, earthy atmosphere of the deep South and a voice imbued with spiritual grace, Bernice L. McFadden tells the story of two women: a modest, churchgoing wife and mother, and the young prostitute she befriends.. "When Sugar arrives in 1950s Bigelow - waltzing down the main square of the sweltering tiny Arkansas town as if she has every right to be there - no one tosses out the welcome mat or invites her in for a Coke. The Bigelow women hate her from the minute they lay eyes on her - on the bouncing blond wig and red-painted lips that tell them she has never known a hard day's work. All they know is they want her gone, out of their town, and away from their men.. "But Sugar has traveled too far and survived too much to back down now. She parks herself in the house at #10 Grove Street, even though she feels there is something about Bigelow that is calling up the past she prayed she'd left behind.. "Deep in her soul, Pearl Taylor knows what it is that Sugar feels, because it happened to her. It was the day her world shut down, the day the devil himself murdered her young daughter, Jude. It wasn't that Pearl stopped believing in God, exactly; she just couldn't trust him the way she used to. Then Sugar moves in next door, and Pearl's life irrevocably changes. Over sweet potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming the lives of two women - and an entire community.

What People Are Saying

Akosua Busia

From Akosua Busia, author of The Seasons of Beento Blackbird

Haunting memorable, Sugar clings to one's mind long after the last page has been turned. To know Sugar is to miss her, in all her simple human-ess. Like her friend Pearl, the reader cannot help but reach to embrace her, in this touchingly written story. Bernice L. McFadden goes to the heart of her characters one to empathize and re-evaluate conscious and unconscious judgments upon fellow human beings.

Pat Neblett

From Pat Neblett, President of the Black Woman's Lit Guild

Wow! It was truly a pleasure to read a well-written book by a black author. Sugar was engrossing, interesting, and thought provoking on many levels.

Yolanda Joe

From Yolanda Joe, author of He Say, She Say and Bebe's by Golly Wow!

Driven mightily by engaging characters, Sugar is written with a wonderful combination of wit and heart.

Diane McKinney-Whetstone

From the author of Blues Dancing, Tempest Rising, and Tumbling

Sugar is an amazingly accomplished first novel. Ms. McFadden's writing swells with images that are both haunting and enchanting as she unwraps a stunning tale of love and loss and transformations.

Eric Jerome Dickey

From the author of Cheaters, Milk in My Coffee, and Friends and Lovers

Sugar is sooooo good! In just a few words Nernice McFadden draws you into the tiny town of Bigelow and into the lives of Pearl and Sugar. A writer's writer, she tells a story which leaves you satisfied with thought.

Sharon Mitchell

From the author of Nothing But The Rent

In Sugar, Bernice L. McFadden grabs the reader's attention immediately and doesn't let it go until the last sentence of the final chapter. Pearl and Sugar touch your heart and linger in your mind long after the final pages is read. Sugar is moving, tragic, and hopeful in equal measure.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

With her eponymous anti-heroine, debut novelist McFadden breaks the mold of a venerable stereotype. Here, the hooker with a heart of gold is instead a hooker with a past so tarnished no amount of polishing can change her fate. As a baby, Sugar is abandoned by her mother and raised by a trio of prostitutes who run an Arkansas bordello. Turning tricks at age 12, and leaving town four years later to try her luck in St. Louis and then Detroit, brings more degradation, along with an ever-hardening heart. Upon her mother's death in 1955, Sugar is willed a modest home in Bigelow, Ark., but when she moves into town, and supports herself the only way she knows, the female population rises in wrath against her. All except Pearl, Sugar's next-door neighbor, who more than a decade ago lost her beloved daughter, Jude, to a vicious rapist/murderer. Pearl is struck by Sugar's uncanny likeness to Jude, and is determined to become Sugar's friend in spite of vocal disapproval. Although the two women are opposites in nearly every way, they bring out the best in each other: Sugar convinces Pearl to loosen up and accompany her to a Saturday night juke joint, and Sugar promises to go to church for two months of Sundays. Hypocritical gossip spreads among the townsfolk and tension grows when it turns out that nearly every married man in Bigelow pays a visit to Sugar, leaving the apparently frigid wives planning to run Sugar out of town. Pearl gives it her best shot to transform Sugar, but both women's painful pasts come back to haunt them in a crescendo of violent reenactments, betrayals and surprising revelations leading to a poignant, bittersweet ending. While hampered by a forced and compressed backstory, a surfeit of maudlin moments and some overwriting that is inadvertently funny, this ambitious first novel will appeal to readers who can appreciate Sugar's determination to come to terms with her past and fashion a viable future. Agent, James Vines. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

McFadden's debut novel is an earthy slice of life in a small Southern town. When Sugar, a prostitute who never had a chance for love or a normal life, moves into the house next door to Pearl, a matron who lost her spirit after the murder of her daughter 15 years before, the two women form a bond strong enough to withstand even the most vicious gossip. But secrets from both of their pasts may prove too much even for these two compelling women, and Sugar must choose between her dreams for something better and the people she has learned to love. McFadden captures the full character of small-town life and the strengths and weaknesses of its people. This novel of friendship and loss is an excellent addition to the growing body of work by young African American writers. Recommended for all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/99.]--Ellen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780525945314
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 2/1/2000
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.62 (w) x 8.75 (h) x 0.87 (d)

Read an Excerpt

JUDE was dead.

On a day when the air held a promise of summer and people laughed aloud, putting aside for a brief moment their condition, color and where they ranked among humanity, Jude, dangling on the end of childhood and reaching out toward womanhood, should have been giggling with others her age among the sassafras or dipping her bare feet in Hodges Lake and shivering against the winter chill it still clutched. Instead she was dead.

She'd been taken down by the sharp blade of jealousy, and her womanhood-so soft, pink and virginal-was sliced from her and laid to rest on the side of the road near her body. Her pigtails, thick dark ropes of hair, lay splayed out above her head, mixed in with the pine needles and road dust. Her dress, white and yellow, her favorite colors, was pulled up to her neck, revealing the small bosom that had developed over the winter.

The murder had white man written all over it. (That was only a half truth.) But no one would say it above a whisper. It was 1940. It was Bigelow, Arkansas. It was a black child. Need any more be said?

No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color. No one cared except the parents who had nursed her, stayed up all night soothing and rocking her when she was colicky. Applauded her when she took her first steps and cried when the babbling, gurgling sounds that came from her sweet mouth finally formed the words Mamma and then later, Papa.

They cared. The parents of sweet, sweet Jude, who would never hurt a fly, no less a human being. Look at what they did to her!

Word first came via the Edelson boy. He'd run all the way and was breathless when he arrived. Black John, the blacksmith, had found her about a mile down the road and covered her body with a Crocker sack while he put himself in the right frame of mind to start coming. He had to pop the boy upside the head, twice, this just to get him moving instead of gawking.

Black John remained behind, gathering the broken child into his arms and placing her gently in his wagon among the bags and crates of field provisions. He stood looking at the beaten body of this almost woman. In life, she was a tall child, strapping, like her father, but in death, she seemed so small. Perhaps it was because of her broken bones and the way her skin sank in the places between the breaks that made her look so tiny and uneven.

He shook his head in pity and looked up into the heavens for an answer. An arrow of blackbirds blinded the sun and then moved on. If that was clarification of why and what lay ahead, Black John never said, but he would think back on this day again in fifteen years' time.

His wife had helped birth this child, as she had most of the Bigelow children. She would take it hard, like she'd lost one of her own. He looked back at the child again and a heavy sigh escaped him. "No rest for the weary," he muttered and then couldn't think of why that would come to mind at all.

He was procrastinating. Standing there behind his wagon of potatoes, turnips, cabbage, yam and Jude, he was stretching the space between his arrival and the scene that would follow. Crying eyes and screaming mouths. He'd seen plenty of grief in his life. But grief let loose from a woman who lost a child-that was the worst type of grief of all. If you could, you'd try to avoid that sort. Because grief that comes from loss of child just took a piece of you away each time you met up with it.

And if you found yourself among it too often for too long, you'd certainly die way before your time.

No, Black John was in no hurry to go.

The sun sat watching curiously on its perch, delaying its descent into late afternoon. It was long past three and Black John's shadow stood stout before him, watching and waiting. He removed his straw hat, the one that belonged to his daddy before him. The one that he inherited when his uncle handed it to him with a quiet word. Black John could never remember the exact word that was spoken, but it left an emptiness in him. The strawberry-colored stain stiffening the center part of the hat's hump confused him more than scared him because his daddy hated strawberries.

Black John fingered the stain and looked back at the dead child, her dress blotched with her own strawberry stains. "Well," he muttered in resignation, as he pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his brow and the back of his neck.

He moved to the cab of the truck and removed a second empty Crocker sack from the floor. Returning to Jude he looked her over once again and shook his head in pity and then tucked the Crocker sacks around her body and went to the left of the wagon. That's when he saw it. Glistening in the sun. His shadow stepped forward and shaded the glare. Black John knew immediately what it was, although he had never seen one without a woman's support, protection and guidance behind it; something like that, once seen, always known. He leaned down and with the sweat-soiled handkerchief retrieved Jude's womanhood. He would later recount (and he often did) how it quivered in the palm of his hand.

His mule closed the distance in a slow saunter that barely disturbed the road dust. Black John looked over and his shadow looked back at him. Ahead he could see the small pond of black faces, eyes big with wanting to know, eyes big with wanting to see. Black John rode right into the middle and when he stepped down from his wagon he was six years old again, his father's straw hat, with the strawberry stain stiff and dry on its hump, in his hands. He pushed through the worn and patched sea of skirts, fought through the tree-long legs of men and bit down hard on a hand that tried to cover his too-young-for-death eyes. When he made it to the clearing there was his father. Beaten so hard and for so long that his skin had bubbled up purple. The top of his head was open and there he saw precious memories and somehow-someday dreams wrapped in I Love You colors spilled out for all of Bigelow to see. Then came the wail and Black John lost a little bit of his time on earth.

That's what scared him now. The silence. The absence of that mournful homage that broke your heart, stole time from Black John and pushed the most pious to question God.

Pearl's mouth hung open, but no sound came. Her heart had broken into tiny pieces that rose up, plugging her throat, allowing only breath to pass.

She tried again when Black John laid Jude's battered body to rest at her feet, the beaten, brutalized, eyeless body of her baby girl; but all she could do was claw at her own eyes and scratch at her throat, drawing blood instead of sound.
Pearl was fighting. Fighting with the reality that there would be no more candy sweet kisses and hugs that could magically erase a problem, worry or fear. In the halls of their home, who would skip, dance and sing so loud that the dogwoods raised their branches in delight?

Who would call her "Mamma honey baby" in that teasing, innocent voice that only Jude possessed?

And there would no longer be a reason for her to answer: "Jude baby doll."
These thoughts ran through her mind until her head ached with grief. Searing hot tears fell heavy from her eyes and landed on her bosom, soaking through the black cotton dress and white brassiere, stinging her skin and scorching her heart. The pain. The pain!

Later, she turned her face toward the heavens, unable to bear the sight of the sorrow-faced men as they covered her baby's coffin with brandy brown dirt. She had prepared herself to be taken from the earth at the very moment she heard the muffled sound of the first shovelful hit the top of the small wooden box. She had asked the Lord to release her from this life and allow her to walk beside her sweet Jude as she entered the Kingdom of Heaven.

But with each shovelful of earth, the sound that marked where Jude lay, quieted, and with the last sprinkling Pearl swayed suddenly and was aware of being lifted from the ground. She smiled, believing the Lord had answered her prayers. She quickly opened her eyes to take in, for what she thought to be the last time, the faces of her husband and two sons.

And they were there, faces pinched with concern and grief, as they hoisted her up and carried her limp body away from graveside.

She lay in bed for nearly thirty days, taking in very little food or water. Calling for Jude and crying when her call was not answered and still, as she wallowed in grief and anguish, the sorrowful wail that was reserved for mothers who've lost their only daughters, remained locked in her throat.

Pearl eventually returned to her life. Now absent of Jude. People stopped talking about it and allowed the matter to slip into the space in their minds reserved for horrors like those. She attempted to do the same, putting her pain not behind her, but beside her, where her sweet Jude should have been, and prayed not for redemption, but for salvation.

No, the Lord would not answer her prayers on that day. Not as she had wished. She did not die. Not physically. Her soul and spirit had departed our world the moment she touched the cold, bruised brow of her child. But God would keep her walking and breathing for quite a few more years to come. He had work for her to do.

From Sugar, Bernice McFadden. (c) December 1999, Bernice McFadden used by permission.

Interviews & Essays

Question: Tell us about your upbringing in the South. Are elements reflected in the story? Are any of the characters based on people you know?

While I wasn't raised in the South, my mother was. The stories she's shared with me over the years have been so vivid I guess that I've adopted the settings into my own stories. Yes, I think characteristics of people that are close to me have seeped into my characters.

Question: How did your family's tradition of storytelling influence your writing?

A very big influence. The stories shared around the table during a holiday meal were the highlight of the gathering and I so looked forward to hearing them over and over again. I want my stories to have the same effect - stories that people will always want to return to time and time again.

Question: The novel is primarily about Sugar and Pearl, with the male characters taking a back seat to the female characters. And yet the story closes with a scene that has Joe as the focus. Why did you choose not to end the story with either Sugar or Pearl actually in the scene?

Sugar's life was one big circle - every step forward put her closer to where she'd already been so it seemed only right that the story should end with a focus on Joe because he was the father to both Jude and Sugar, completing the circle.

Question: As the mother of a daughter, was it difficult for you to write about Jude's murder? Why did you choose to maximize the horror of Jude's death by having the killer desecrate her body?

Fortunately it was not difficult to put that scene down on paper,although now when I go back to read it, it is a bit unnerving. The desecration was not a conscious choice, but exactly what I saw unfolding before me.

Question: Why did you choose to set the novel in the 1940s and 1950s instead of the present day?

My stories come to me as visions in bits and pieces - and I saw the 40's & 50's.

Question: Sugar and Pearl's friendship forms the basis of the novel. How important are friendships in women's lives?

I take my relationships with women very seriously. I come from a family of women, so my respect for them is quite extraordinary. Friendships between women are sacred because we understand and feel for each other on levels that men are just not equipped to do.

Question: In the beginning of the book there is a quote by Sarah Miles: "There's a little bit of hooker in every woman. A little bit of hooker and a little bit of God." Why did you choose to use this quote? How do you think it relates to the story?

That quote caught the whole essence of Sugar and Pearl. It speaks to the story and the good and not so good we all have inside of us.

Question: This Bitter Earth, the sequel to Sugar, has recently been published. What can you tell us about it?

TBE is Sugar's continuing story, but it's also about a lot of the other characters that had to take a back seat in Sugar. TBE will delve further into Sugar's past as well as explain the effects her prescence and consquent departure in Bigelow had on the Taylor's as well as the town residents.

Question: Are you working on a new novel?

Yes, I'm working on a story that will examine why some people love the way they do and while still others are unable to love at all.

Question: :What writers do you admire? Have any of them influenced your work?

I have great respect and admiration for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, J. California Cooper and Marita Golden. They have written stories that I return to time and time again for encouragement and guidance whenever I feel I've lost my way in my own stories.

Reading Group Guide

Question: Sugar opens with the murder of Jude Taylor. Why do you think the author chose to open with this graphic-and horrific-scene? How did this scene set the tone for the rest of the novel? Why is Jude's murder such an integral part of the storyline?

Question: When Pearl first sees Sugar, she is "struck by the familiarity of her face"(pg. 37) because it reminds her of Jude. Pearl also called Sugar by Jude's name on several occasions. What draws Pearl to Sugar besides her physical resemblance to Jude?

Question: By associating with Sugar, Pearl alienates Shirley and some of the other women in Bigelow. Why do these women feel so threatened by Sugar?
Question: Sugar and Pearl's friendship is an unlikely pairing. What does each one gain from the relationship?

Question: At one point in the story the author writes, "Knowing each other's past helped both Pearl and Sugar. Secret pains, now told, bonded the women together tighter than anything else in this world" (pg. 125). Why do Pearl and Sugar choose to confide in one other when neither has ever done so with anyone else?
Question: In the beginning of the book, the author has included this quote by Sarah Miles: "There's a little bit of hooker in every woman. A little bit of hooker and a little bit of God." What do you think of this statement? How does it pertain to the story?
Question: Sugar is set mainly in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas. What "role" does the small town play in the story? Sugar was raised in a small town by the Lacey sisters and later lived in St. Louis, Detroit, andChicago. Why does she choose to return to a small town?
Question: Describe Pearl and Joe's relationship. What first drew them to one another? How would you describe their relationship when the story first begins? How does it change as the novel progresses? At the end of the story, the reader finds out that Joe is going to make a confession to Pearl. How do you think she would have reacted to the news?

Question: "Pearl looked around her. She tried to imagine herself without Sugar. She didn't know who that might be, the person that existed before Sugar's arrival was buried deep into the hard, dry memory of Bigelow next to the rotting bones of her baby girl. How could she be anything more with the loss of two in her life now?" (pg. 218). Why does Pearl feel so bereft by Sugar's departure? Do you think she sensed that Sugar was more than just a neighbor and friend to her and Joe?

Question: One reviewer stated that "Sugar speaks of what is real." What aspects of the novel do you think the reviewer is referring to?

Customer Reviews

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DeenyDV

Posted May 18, 2011

more from this reviewer

A worthy read....powerful.

This story of two most unlikely women becoming friends and battling the troubles in their lives, is such a rewarding experience for the reader. With each page you become engaged in such a deep story of love and pain for Sugar and her friend Pearl, and their need to hang on, keeping hope in their hearts.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Doonie_820

Posted January 8, 2011

Awesome Book! A great journey between these pages.

I read this book a few years ago and it has been passed on from family member to family member and they absolutely loved it! I am adding it to my nook library and look forward to reading it again. This book is wonderfully written and sometimes I feel just like I am sitting on the porch with Sugar and Pearl enjoying some "pike aid". It is remarkable how each of their journey's through pain lead them to each other and allow them to love and protect each other as mother and daughter's often time do.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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phx-reader1

Posted April 5, 2012

more from this reviewer

GOOD STORY - I LOVED IT

I ENJOYED THIS STORY, YES ITS SAD BUT SO IS LIFE SOMETIMES. IT WAS A QUICK READ BECAUSE YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. RESEARCHING THIS AUTHOR I FIND THAT THE STORY CONTINUES SO I AM RUNNING OUT TO GET ALL OF BERNICE McFADDEN'S BOOKS, SHE KNOWS HOW TO KEEP YOU INTERESTED IN A STORY AND ISN'T THAT WHY WE READ NOVELS?
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Anonymous

Posted March 15, 2012

Awesome read

Sugar is a book i could not put down. It kept my attention from the beginning until the end. I highly recommend this book.
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cute_texan

Posted January 26, 2012

Great Modern African Classic

The story of the whore and the church lady lost until the find each other. Sugar the whore is lost motherless child. Pearl the church lady who has lost her daughter to a tragic murder. When the two get together the small town of Bigelow just ain't ready for this. Also read "This Bitter Earth", Sugar story don't end just because the book does. ENJOY!
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Anonymous

Posted December 27, 2011

LOVED IT

Great Story!
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Anonymous

Posted November 6, 2011

SWEET!!!!

A page turner from start to finish. I read this book in two day, just could not put it dowm. It reminds to never judge a person by ther cover. And any one can teach you a thing or two about your self.
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STEELO07

Posted October 20, 2011

I Also Recommend:

MUST READ

This book is great. I love Sugar Lacey. This is one of my favorite books. this is the first book I read by Bernice Mcfadden and after reading this I read everything else by her including the books under her other name Geneva Holiday. EASY READ HARD TO PUT DOWN A PAGE TURNER.
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VirtuousWomanKF

Posted June 9, 2011

Beware of language!

Bernice McFadden's debut novel, "Sugar", is an interesting story of lives of the deep South, 1950's. There were spots where I thought the book was a bit slow. It is also my opinion, that the book could have been written just as well and the story been told without using some of the language and descriptions of sexual exploitations.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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sanken211

Posted April 29, 2011

more from this reviewer

excellent story

The characters have a lot of "flavor." The story keeps you reading. Only complaint would be - on a few important details we were left hanging. Will there be a sequal? Otherwise, a great read with Southern flavor.
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ktrinaj

Posted March 30, 2011

more from this reviewer

excellent

You will pray for Sugar's spirit to find peace from beginning to end! I never wanted this book to end.
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5723405

Posted February 6, 2011

Good sad tale

I love books that make you talk outloud. Giod recommendation from Kenya Johnson.
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TBBW

Posted January 4, 2011

Excellent Book!

This was my first Bernice McFadden book. It was as good as her Geneva holliday books can't wait to read the next book.
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swoods67

Posted October 17, 2010

A great story...can't wait for This Bitter Earth!

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I am so glad that I finally read it. Bernice McFadden is a great story teller...I enjoy books that make me feel a part of the character's lives and paints a vivid picture enabling you to see the characters and scenes.
I am definitely adding her to my favorite author list and look forward to continuing Sugar's story in This Bitter Earth.
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jewelknits

Posted June 26, 2010

So powerful it punches you in the face

The publisher's blurb does not do this book any justice. This is truly a must-read book for anyone: male/female, black/white, anyone who's a grownup and loves to read.
The book opens powerfully: to a tragic scene of loss. The very first line; Jude was dead
A mother (Pearl) loses her only daughter in a horrible fashion - before the girl has had a chance to taste what it's like to be a woman. The loss sets her reeling and takes away her laugh. Even her loving and faithful husband and adoring sons can't bring the smile back into her eyes.
15 years later, in 1955, a young woman (Sugar) who has had a life almost devoid of any real human connections moves in next door in small-town Bigelow, Arkansas. Her mother dropped her off almost at birth with a family of women who ran a house of prostitution, and the only life she's known has involved selling her body to get by. She's never owned or had anything of her own, even a family. Inheriting her own house (from someone she's never known, met, or even heard of) changes this and she decides to take full advantage of this opportunity. She pays the bills the only way she knows how, which sets tongues to wagging and even some tempers to flaring.
Pearl has been asked by her minister to take Sugar under her wing when she arrives. It takes a few visits and a few shattered sweet potato pies for these two to finally become friends. Pearl's life, even with her loss, has been rather sheltered, revolving around her family, her small circle of friends, and her church. It takes quite a while for her to figure out what her neighbor is doing to earn her living. Despite this, she perseveres in her friendship with Sugar, who has an almost uncanny resemblance to her lost daughter Jude.
Pearl, who is the soul of propriety and has never even gone to a juke joint (that is, until she met Sugar), is vilified by her "friends" almost as much as Sugar is. And yet ... there is just something about this young girl who could be her own that draws her in.
The tale of Sugar's life and of this friendship are the core of this book. The tale of how many of the characters are connected comes out piece by tantalizing piece. You, the reader, will know more about these connections than many of the characters themselves by the end of this journey.
This is the type of book that stays with you. You will continue to think about it long after you've turned the last page. It is not a pleasant book. If you are a parent, you may not be able to get through the first few pages without crying, or, at the least, feeling your heart rip in pain for the tragedy that is described. You will want to step inside of it's pages and punch some of the characters dead in their faces. Some of the scenes will punch YOU in the face. It will not end the way you want it to, but, considering the story itself, the ending is appropriate. You will not believe that this is the author's debut novel, as it is so well and powerfully written.
Many reviewers have stated that there is no redemption in this book. I respectfully disagree. There IS a sort of redemption in having a taste of happiness when you haven't known any before. When a life is this difficult, even having a day of love and laughter and knowing what it is is better than never having a chance to know it at all. Being able to open yourself up to love someone new and to laugh again after a horrible loss is redemptive as well.
Sensitive Reader: This book is not for you: violence, language, an
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zsarisama

Posted April 8, 2010

Loved It

I went through very emotion possible with this book it was great and i could not put it down. Going to pick up the sequel this afternoon.
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fitz12383

Posted March 9, 2010

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1950s Jim Crow Arkansas

I first heard of Sugar when I read Mel's review over at Gerbera Daisy Diaries. I knew this was a book I wanted to read, and soon. Coincidentally, Ms. McFadden emailed me about 2 weeks later asking if she could send me a copy of her book. I responded with an emphatic 'yes'! Most books don't usually make me cry or elicit an extremely strong response within me, but this one most definitely did both.

The mood of the book is set immediately as it opens with the horrific murder of Jude Taylor. This murder becomes an integral part of the storyline concerning Sugar and Jude's mother, Pearl Taylor. Sugar and Pearl are probably a most unlikely pair of friends- Sugar is a rough and tumble, brash and in-your-face young woman who sells her body, where Pearl is a complacent, obedient, docile housewife who has been quietly nursing her grief over her daughter's death for well over a decade.

"Knowing each other's past helped both Pearl and Sugar. Secret pains, now told, bonded the women together tighter than anything else in this world."

Despite their differences, Pearl and Sugar develop a familial bond in which they confide in one another, much to the chagrin of Pearl's fellow church friends.Inevitably, small-town gossip ensues.

Sugar is a gritty story, full of crime, murder, sex, and secrets. Despite its sometimes graphic content, do not be put off. There is a dignity and grace in the writing that to me is reminiscent of Morrison and Hurston. McFadden has captured the feel of the 1950s Deep South and the people that inhabited it.
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reginawalker

Posted January 20, 2010

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What a title. What a name for a character. What a first sentence.

This was my first Bernice McFadden book. I read it all at one time on a Sunday because I couldn't bear to put it down for even a second (well, just long enough to make Strawberry Lemonade). I had to know what was going to happen to these characters whose lives I knew had to be intertwined - but it wasn't in a cheesy way, you know? As I read it, I could smell the humid air that would sit on your bare arms like a blanket and steam your short-pants covered legs while you rest under a shade tree. As I read, I could feel the moisture that was not quite sweat that would be on your legs - I like to refer to it as a glow - when you swatted at a mosquito or chigger that came too close for comfort. You could hear the men telling stories (or lies, as Zora Neale Hurston called them in some of her writings) while they sat in the rocking chairs on their porches or in front of the General Store. I could see white sheets hanging on clothes lines swaying gently in the breeze that seemed to simply stir up the humidity rather than actually cool you off. Now, I will give you the same disclaimer that I give all my friends - there is a very graphic scene described very early in the book. Press through that and you will appreciate it, as well as understand why it would have been a serious disservice to the story to be glossed over, as you move through the story.
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jazzlover320

Posted March 31, 2009

SWEET as SUGAR!!

It really should be a crime to how good this book is!!! I read it and felt like my whole world changed completly. This author shouldn't be taken lightly...she's that good!!! PLEASE CHECK IT OUT!!! As an avid reader and sometimes very critical one, this book is ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ PERIOD!!!
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Anonymous

Posted December 11, 2008

Awesome!

This book is awesome. This book along with its sequel This Bitter Earth are the only two that I faithfully recommend to anyone who asks if I know of any good books. I love the language of the book. Everyone has a purpose and the characters are well developed. Full of surprises. Every page leaves you wanting more.
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A worthy read....powerful.

Awesome Book! A great journey between these pages.

GOOD STORY - I LOVED IT

Awesome read

Great Modern African Classic

LOVED IT

SWEET!!!!

MUST READ

Beware of language!

excellent story

excellent

Good sad tale

Excellent Book!

A great story...can't wait for This Bitter Earth!

So powerful it punches you in the face

Loved It

1950s Jim Crow Arkansas

What a title. What a name for a character. What a first sentence.

SWEET as SUGAR!!

Awesome!