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HERE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IS AN

2003 FIRST EDITION

"Getting Mother's Body"

By Parks, Suzan-Lori

Suzan-Lori Parks has taught creative writing at the Yale School of Drama, and she heads the Dramatic Writing Program at CalArts.BILLY BEEDE “Where my panties at?” I asks him. Snipes don’t say nothing. He don’t like to talk when he’s in the middle of it. “I think I lost my panties,” I says but Snipes ain’t hearing. He got his eyes closed, his mouth smiling, his face wet with sweat. In the middle of it, up there on top of me, going in and out. Not on top of me really, more like on top of the side of me cause he didn’t want my baby-belly getting in his way. He didn’t say so, he ain’t said nothing bout the baby yet, but I seen him looking at my belly and I know he’s thinking about it, somewhere in his mind. We’re in the backseat of his Galaxie. A Ford. Bright lemon colored outside, inside the color of new butter. My head taps against the door handle as he goes at it. “Huh. Huh. Huh,” Snipes goes. In a minute my head’s gonna hurt. But it don’t hurt yet. “Where—” I go but he draws his finger down over my lips, hushing them so I don’t finish, then he rubs my titty, moving his hand in a quick circle like he’s polishing it. I try scootching down along the seat, away from the door, but when I scootch, Snipes’ going at it scootches me right back up against the door handle again. I wonder if my baby’s sitting in me upside down and if Snipes’ thing is hitting it on its head like the door handle is hitting me on mines. “Ow,” I go. Cause now my head hurts. “Owww,” Snipes go. Cause he’s through. He lays there for a minute then pulls himself out of me and gets out the car. He closes up his pants while he looks down the road. Zipper then belt. In my head I can see all the little seeds he just sowed in me.All them little Snipeses running up inside me looking for somewheres to plant. But there’s a baby up in me already, a Baby Snipes. Baby Snipes knocks down the Little Snipes Seeds as fast as they come up. “How you doing?” Snipes asks. “Mmokay.” I turn from my side onto my back, raising up on both elbows. My housedress is all open and the baby makes a hump. Snipes turns to look at me, his gold-colored eyes staying on mines, seeing the hump without really seeing it. He ducks into the front seat, getting his Chesterfields out his shirt pocket, and standing there with his back to me, smoking in just his undershirt. “Penny for yr thoughts,” I go but he don’t turn around or say nothing. I sit up, buckling my bra and taking a look around for my panties, first in the front seat then running my hand between the backseat and the seat back, thinking my panties mighta got stuck in between but not finding nothing. Then I do feel a scrap of something and give it a yank. Big red shiny drawers. Not mines. Snipes turns around and sees me holding them. “My sister’s,” he says smiling and putting on his shirt. “I let her use my car sometimes.” I stuff the drawers back where I found them, first leaving a little red tail sticking out, then stuffing them back in all the way. “I didn’t know you had no sister,” I says. “I don’t know nothing about you.” “Whatchu need to know?” he says. “What’s her name?” “Who?” “Yr sister.” “Alberta,” he says. Then he turns away showing me the side of his face, shaved clean and right-angled as my elbow. He’s smiling hard, but not at me. “Clifton, can I ask you something else?” ““Suzan-Lori Parks is a terrific writer whose characters don’t so much talk to us as sing, full-throated, of their joys and miseries.” —Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls “With a playwright’s ear, a novelist’s eye, and a passionate appreciation for the complex magic of everyday women, Suzan-Lori Parks spins a story whose characters are as mysterious and sexy as lace curtains billowing at the bedroom window.” —Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary DayDebut novel about a down-on-their-luck black family in 1960s Texas in search of the storied jewels buried with one of their relatives.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. From the Hardcover edition.Billy is Willa Mae's only daughter and heir to her legendary 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 behind a gas station in a tumbleweedy Texas town, and pregnant with an illegitimate child, Billy sees hope and opportunity. So she steals Dill's truck and embarks on a pilgrimage with her aunt and uncle to La Junta, Arizona, with Dill in hot pursuit. They go to get her mother's body and to move her to a proper resting place, but also to search for the pearls and diamonds they hope will be their salvation. En route, they meet up with relatives who join the caravan, they encounter the racism of the 1960s South--where, in the words of Roosevelt Beede, "the life of a negro is cheap and the life of a negro gal with a baby in her belly and no ring is cheaper"--and they swap stories about the enigmatic siren Willa Mae. While Getting Mother's Body works within the tradition of the great African American women novelists, its voice is distinctive and its achievement is singular and original."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."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights ReservedBilly 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 fortunea 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."Suzan-Lori Parks is a terrific writer whose characters don't so much talk to us as sing, full-throated, of their joys and miseries." Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls "With a playwright's ear, a novelist's eye, and a passionate appreciation for the complex magic of everyday women, Suzan-Lori Parks spins a story whose characters are as mysterious and sexy as lace curtains billowing at the bedroom window." Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary DayBILLY BEEDE "Where my panties at?" I asks him. Snipes don't say nothing. He don't like to talk when he's in the middle of it. "I think I lost my panties," I says but Snipes ain't hearing. He got his eyes closed, his mouth smiling, his face wet with sweat. In the middle of it, up there on top of me, going in and out. Not on top of me really, more like on top of the side of me cause he didn't want my baby-belly getting in his way. He didn't say so, he ain't said nothing bout the baby yet, but I seen him looking at my belly and I know he's thinking about it, somewhere in his mind. We're in the backseat of his Galaxie. A Ford. Bright lemon colored outside, inside the color of new butter. My head taps against the door handle as he goes at it. "Huh. Huh. Huh," Snipes goes. In a minute my head's gonna hurt. But it don't hurt yet. "Where" I go but he draws his finger down over my lips, hushing them so I don't finish, then he rubs my titty, moving his hand in a quick circle like he's polishing it. I try scootching down along the seat, away from the door, but when I scootch, Snipes' going at it scootches me right back up against the door handle again. I wonder if my baby's sitting in me upside down and if Snipes' thing is hitting it on its head like the door handle is hitting me on mines. "Ow," I go. Cause now my head hurts. "Owww," Snipes go. Cause he's through. He lays there for a minute then pulls himself out of me and gets out the car. He closes up his pants while he looks down the road. Zipper then belt. In my head I can see all the little seeds he just sowed in me.All them little Snipeses running up inside me looking for somewheres to plant. But there's a baby up in me already, a Baby Snipes. Baby Snipes knocks down the Little Snipes Seeds as fast as they come up. "How you doing?" Snipes asks. "Mmokay." I turn from my side onto my back, raising up on both elbows. My housedress is all open and the baby makes a hump. Snipes turns to look at me, his gold-colored eyes staying on mines, seeing the hump without really seeing it. He ducks into the front seat, getting his Chesterfields out his shirt pocket, and standing there with his back to me, smoking in just his undershirt. "Penny for yr thoughts," I go but he don't turn around or say nothing. I sit up, buckling my bra and taking a look around for my panties, first in the front seat then running my hand between the backseat and the seat back, thinking my panties mighta got stuck in between but not finding nothing. Then I do feel a scrap of something and give it a yank. Big red shiny drawers. Not mines. Snipes turns around and sees me holding them. "My sister's," he says smiling and putting on his shirt. "I let her use my car sometimes." I stuff the drawers back where I found them, first leaving a little red tail sticking out, then stuffing them back in all the way. "I didn't know you had no sister," I says. "I don't know nothing about you." "Whatchu need to know?" he says. "What's her name?" "Who?" "Yr sister." "Alberta," he says. Then he turns away showing me the side of his face, shaved clean and right-angled as my elbow. He's smiling hard, but not at me. "Clifton, can I ask you something else?"

BOOK IS LIKE NEW IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. THE COVER, BINDING & PAGES ARE CLEAN AND FULLY INTACT. ITEMS DISPLAYS MINIMAL SHELF WEAR ON THE COVER.

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