Baby Got Books

Sugar

One way to get my attention is to begin a book with a vivid murder scene of a little black girl in the 1950’s. Bernice McFadden, the author of Sugar shocks the reader to attention in the first few pages. Sugar is a book I wouldn’t normally have found, because I don’t choose my books based on the color of the author – this book can be found way over in the African-American Author section. In my case, the book literally landed in my lap so I gave it a try, and I was surprised that I didn’t want to put it down.

Pearl lives in a small town in Arkansas. She is a church-going woman who lost her little girl to a brutal murder fifteen years prior to the beginning of the story. The day Sugar moves in next door to Pearl is remembered by the entire town:

The storm walked into their small town on two legs in spiked red patent leather heels. She waltzed right through the main square, blond wig bounding to the rhythm of her walk, a leopard print pocketbook slung over one shoulder, matching suitcases in each hand.

Sugar is a prostitute and is shunned by all of the church-going women in town (which is of course, all of the women). Pearl ignores the rumors she hears and befriends Sugar. Slowly and gradually, their friendship grows into a deep internal bond that surprises both of them. Their friendship is such that after having “words” with each other, they miss each other and quickly forgive because being apart or even the thought of being apart is too hard to imagine.

Sugar helps pull Pearl out of her 15 year depression by introducing her to experiences she has never had. Likewise, Pearl helps Sugar see a calmer, loving part of life that Sugar has never had. As their friendship develops, Ms. McFadden seamlessly pulls the reader into each of their painful pasts and develops the characters so completely that we want to help them ourselves.

Ms. McFadden brings us this moving, thought-provoking story that contradicts the Beaver Cleaver/Happy Days image a lot of us have of the 1950′s – she makes it “real.” June Cleaver certainly never used the F word! And although this story could happen to people of any color, Ms. McFadden subtly makes us aware that it still the 1950’s with Jim Crow laws in full effect.

The blind man had other one-night gigs to do, the chitlin curcuit was sixty-five nights of giving yourself over to segregated toilets and drinking fountains, and scared white people that suspected your lyrics carried something other than sadness or happiness. Suspected that maybe those words carried seeds of contention.

Throughout the book, Ms. McFadden reminds us through her characters that horrible things can happen to each of us, but we are all still alive! We need to appreciate and love those around us. If we are quick to judge others we could miss an opportunity to come alive more fully, to experience people and places that we never thought we could or would.

At the moment when I thought (or was hoping) that the fairy tale princess ending would happen, Ms. McFadden twists the story another way, then when I really thought I knew the ending, she surprised me again!

Sugar was Ms. McFadden’s first novel ten years ago. She has re-released it in order to reach a broader audience. Hopefully the book will reach this audience and can be enjoyed by people of all ethnicities. Ms. McFadden’s second book is titled This Bitter Earth and I’ll be reading it soon.