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1st out of 43 books
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Sugar (Sugar Lacey #1)
by
Bernice L. McFadden (Goodreads Author)
From an exciting new voice in African-American contemporary fiction comes "a literary explosion . . . a stunning tale of love and loss" (The Chicago Defender). The novel opens when a young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fiftee...more
Paperback, 229 pages
Published
January 2nd 2001
by Plume Books
(first published 2000)
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More Sugar, Please
Okay, so I’ve heard about this book, heard about this book and heard about this book. Haven’t run into a single person who read it and didn’t love it. But this is me we’re talking about so that doesn’t mean anything to me. I had read a previous title by Bernice McFadden and it didn’t do anything for me. I tried her alter ego, Geneva Holiday, and wasn’t moved. It wasn’t until a dear friend who is also a bookseller actually put the book in my hand and told me to ...more
Okay, so I’ve heard about this book, heard about this book and heard about this book. Haven’t run into a single person who read it and didn’t love it. But this is me we’re talking about so that doesn’t mean anything to me. I had read a previous title by Bernice McFadden and it didn’t do anything for me. I tried her alter ego, Geneva Holiday, and wasn’t moved. It wasn’t until a dear friend who is also a bookseller actually put the book in my hand and told me to ...more
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If you haven't read this, then SHAME ON YOU...for real.
From my blog...[return]Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden is a shining example of how literary fiction should be written; with warmth, depth, vivid imagery, and beautiful prose. Sugar is a novel about two women; one born in brothels and looking for a new life, the other an ideal wife and upstanding community member grieving the loss of her son. When Sugar moves in next door to Pearl their lives are destined to become intertwined and McFadden weaves their lives together so delicately and lovingly, it i...more
Totally Spellbinding
"Sugar" was one of the best novels I've read in a long time! I applaud the talents of the writer because as a debut novel, she was able to capture the attention of the reader and maintain it throughout. I remember thinking that this was going to be a slow read, however, I found myself enjoying the fact that she didn't reveal too much, too soon. I enjoyed the characters in "Sugar". This book will have you feeling a range of emotions from beginn...more
"Sugar" was one of the best novels I've read in a long time! I applaud the talents of the writer because as a debut novel, she was able to capture the attention of the reader and maintain it throughout. I remember thinking that this was going to be a slow read, however, I found myself enjoying the fact that she didn't reveal too much, too soon. I enjoyed the characters in "Sugar". This book will have you feeling a range of emotions from beginn...more
McFadden's style reminds me a lot of J. California Cooper, who IMHO is THE BEST African-American author I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
I was half-way through "Sugar" before I found out there was a sequel to the story, "This Bitter Earth". I promptly ordered the sequel and look forward to adding the rest of McFadden's titles to my library.
The characters were so real - it seemed as if they were people I actually grew up around...or with. The story drew you ...more
I was half-way through "Sugar" before I found out there was a sequel to the story, "This Bitter Earth". I promptly ordered the sequel and look forward to adding the rest of McFadden's titles to my library.
The characters were so real - it seemed as if they were people I actually grew up around...or with. The story drew you ...more
I didn't know what to expect from Sugar as I read the opening scene of a horrendous murder of a young black girl named Jude and the devastated mother she left behind named Pearl. The year was 1940, the place was a southern black town, and it was the era of segregation...
"No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color"
Bernice McFadden made me feel the anguish of a mother who lost her child; the injustice of the times as it was known nothing was go...more
"No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color"
Bernice McFadden made me feel the anguish of a mother who lost her child; the injustice of the times as it was known nothing was go...more
Who is Sugar? She's the new woman in town - and she clearly does NOT belong, what with her flashy wig and skin-tight clothes, with wickedness written all over her. The women of Bigelow, Arkansas, in 1955, decide from the start that she is not THEIR kind - and truthfully, she's not. She's a whore, plain and simple - and has a hard time seeing herself as anything else.
Torn-up from the inside out, Sugar is lost inside a well of anguish and hard-luck and arriving in a new town, full of p...more
Torn-up from the inside out, Sugar is lost inside a well of anguish and hard-luck and arriving in a new town, full of p...more
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Pearl has had her heart ripped out after the murder of her daughter; Sugar has had her life ripped apart by choices made for her by others. Neither knows, until Sugar moves next door to Pearl, what life has in store for them both.
In my quest to find the alternative to “The Help” I’m trying to immerse myself in African-American authors, who’s points of view lend more authenticity and credibility to the stories of African-American characters. I hit gold with Bernice L. McFadden’s, Su...more
In my quest to find the alternative to “The Help” I’m trying to immerse myself in African-American authors, who’s points of view lend more authenticity and credibility to the stories of African-American characters. I hit gold with Bernice L. McFadden’s, Su...more
I mostly picked this book up because I needed a book by a non-white author. In my English teacher's words: "Not pasty white...not like me."
Knowing that Sister McCurdy had read and liked it, I picked it up...Thanks, by the way. Of course, when she finds out that I'm reading it, she tells me it's not for a high school student.
And get it straight, it is for a mature reader. I would not recommend it to anyone else my age, especially the squeamish ones. I don't know ...more
Knowing that Sister McCurdy had read and liked it, I picked it up...Thanks, by the way. Of course, when she finds out that I'm reading it, she tells me it's not for a high school student.
And get it straight, it is for a mature reader. I would not recommend it to anyone else my age, especially the squeamish ones. I don't know ...more
I am very disappointed with the ending of such an explosive and interesting story! No real secrets were exposed. No one had any resolve or closing over their sorrows. No happy ending or at least one that made sense. It's as if Ms. McFadden heard the door bell ringing and just stopped writing. Why counldn't Sugar have stood before the church and told them who her grandmother and mother was so that her connection to her biggest basher, Ms. Shirley, being her great-grandmother had been revealed? An...more
When Sugar Lacey comes to the small town of Bigelow in Arkansas, life is shaken up. Women eye her with disdain, men eye her with lust. This is the basis of the novel Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden. Sugar begins with a bang, immediately we are drawn in with a murder of a little girl. Emotion is ripe and we see how the murder takes a toll on Pearl Taylor, the mother of the victim. The book then flashes forward fifteen years, when the lives of Sugar Lacey and Pearl Taylor will intertwine over sweet p...more
Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries)
rated it
Recommends it for:
any adult
Recommended to Julie by:
Karen at Bookin with Bingo
Shelves:
reviewed
This review was initially posted on my blog:
http://www.jewelknits.blogspot.com/2010/...
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 tast...more
http://www.jewelknits.blogspot.com/2010/...
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 tast...more
In a world where happily-ever-after stories are a dime a dozen, it's nice to be able to pick up a book that portrays a more realistic world that isn't all perfect and doesn't always end syrupy-sweet. Sugar is one of those books. Set in the deep South during the 1950s, it portrays the life of a prostitute as the difficult and scary life that it is. It also portrays the life of her neighbor, a mother who lost her daughter far too soon and has to live with the horror and sorrow of her murder every ...more
This was a spellbinding and compelling book. The book started slowly. Reading the first 50 pages, you are fooled into thinking that you have figured out the mystery and that you will be bored for the next 150 pages. However, the pace picks up, the story begins to unfold, and you feel like you are watching a movie on Lifetime. Reading this in one sitting is easy as the parallels of people’s lives memorize you. We have all lived through some kind of hardship, pain, rejection, and abuse. Women,...more
My friends Tamieka always give me great books to read.
For the past few months I've been reading a lot of dreck. Just poorly constructed things that have wasted good trees and were called "novels" with taglines and plotlines that drew you in, but just tread water from poor execution. I hate to say that some of the books I'm slamming highlighted topics about the Black experience. As a woman of color and an aspiring writer myself, I look to these books for inspiration, for familiar feelings, but dammit to hell do some of these new Black auth...more
Sugar was beautifully wrenching. At times it was almost too painful for me to read. I really could not understand why Sugar kept making the choices that she did. Her life is certainly an example of how a woman can be beat down so much that she can't accept good treatment even when it's offered to her numerous times.
I love historical fiction and good story-telling. And the writing was tremendous. I loved the phrasing, settings and descriptions - word choice made them vibrant and substa...more
I love historical fiction and good story-telling. And the writing was tremendous. I loved the phrasing, settings and descriptions - word choice made them vibrant and substa...more
I had read the first page of this book, soon as it arrived at my doorstep. Right then I was hooked, and had to resist from reading further. Bernice McFadden's writing is so beautiful, that I just lost myself in it. The very first page was stunning both in its prose and in it's sharp narration.
My opinion
In the Spring of 1940, a little girl, Jude, is found dead in Bigelow, Arkansas, in the most brutal manner possible. Her death sends the whole community into shock and devastates ...more
My opinion
In the Spring of 1940, a little girl, Jude, is found dead in Bigelow, Arkansas, in the most brutal manner possible. Her death sends the whole community into shock and devastates ...more
The book opens with the brutal death of a sweet innocent child, Jude. A death that rocks this small town and nearly kills, Pearl, Jude's mother. Then the book moves forward fifteen years with the arrival of, Sugar, a prostitute. Sugar and Pearl bring a certain balance to each others life. They have an effect on each other that is quite unexplainable but it does help that Sugar looks a lot like Jude. The town is not as welcoming of Sugar as Pearl is. There are several rifts and confrontations tha...more
Being a girl raised in the South, and one who was born at the end of the 1950s, I must admit that Bernice McFadden's depiction of southern black life in her debut novel, Sugar , is SURREAL. I have read a lot of compelling novels to date. But, I cannot recall reading one that held me spellbound by its vivid setting, characters, and language laced with southern idioms the way this novel did.
My first reaction while reading this book was a combination of shock and horror. The shock was ...more
My first reaction while reading this book was a combination of shock and horror. The shock was ...more
Aaron
rated it
Recommends it for:
Anbody interested in literary African American fiction
Recommended to Aaron by:
Oprah
If you want to know what the book is about, read the synopsis. I stopped doing book reports when I was in grade school. If you want to know what I thought of the book, read on.
"Sugar" was a book I had sitting on my book shelf for awhile that I finally got around to reading.
I thought it was pretty good, I like the way the author told the story and her writing was crisp and clean.
However, I saw the ending coming a mile away and wished she would have do...more
"Sugar" was a book I had sitting on my book shelf for awhile that I finally got around to reading.
I thought it was pretty good, I like the way the author told the story and her writing was crisp and clean.
However, I saw the ending coming a mile away and wished she would have do...more
It was ok, but not quite believable for me to really get into it. Although it is interesting to see how different the lives of small-town people can really be, I felt the characters weren't quite developed enough to run the story--rather, the story ran them. I did appreciate the idea that everyone has something to learn from someone else, but that there are better ways to live than others. And I like the idea that people come into our lives to help us. I just wish it had been more thought-out.
Wow, certainly not a happy story...a lot of pain & tragedy but compellingly written & no doubt a reflection of the lives of blacks in the pre-civil rights South, where there was just a bitter acceptance that injustice & suffering was normative reality. The first five pages were brutal to get through. The bits of happiness within the bleak landscape of the characters' lives were a joy to read, though, & all the more appreciated given how few & far between they were. Found some of the plot twis...more
This book was simply amazing. It didn't wear me down with by describing things, each description was so vivid and fit perfectly. When a character would have a thought I was thrust back into that memory and each jaw dropping revelation kept me yearning for more, I finished this book in one day and rushed to read the second part. It will make you laugh, tug on your heart strings, and cause you to step back and think about how easily we can misjudge people by merely glancing at them. This book ...more
This was a good read but won't be up there among my favorites. Poor Sugar - my heart broke for her - truly. She had such a sad, sad life. Even more, though, my heart broke for Pearl. I think, as a mother, the book's first chapter was a little too graphic for me, but I soldiered on.
I think, in the end, I just felt that the story was too sad. I wanted a happy ending for these poor people, and I just didn't get it.
I think, in the end, I just felt that the story was too sad. I wanted a happy ending for these poor people, and I just didn't get it.
I really enjoyed the writing style of Bernice McFadden. I felt like I was back in 1955 Bigelow, Arkansas. I felt like I knew the main characters Pearl and Sugar and felt their emotions and what they were going through. The only thing that disappointed me was the ending. It was not a bad ending that would cause me to dislike the book but I felt it left too many loose strings. It left you still wondering about several issues that should have been addressed. It would be really nice if Ms. McFadden ...more
I love this book. It made me cry at the injustices that went on in Arkansas during the period the book is set, and the story is just so much to ingest! But it was one of the best books I've ever read! The ironic part was that I felt the book had ended without resloving all the crimes that had occured, and I hoped that there woudl be a follow-up book... then I found "This Bitter Earth"
Been in an African American literature sort of mood lately, The Bluest Eye and The Secret Life of Bees for class, Wench and The Kitchen House for book club, so I picked up Sugar. This is a good book, but SO not for the faint of heart- there's a lot of graphic violence in here. But with that being said, I think the book was really good and would definitely read this author again.
1940s. A woman named Sugar comes to town and befriends a very church-going woman who has lost her child in a horrific murder. Pearl, the woman begins to see her lost daughter in Sugar, who works as a prostitute. Of course the townspeople don't understand the connection and it becomes somewhat of a scandal for Pearl.
I loved the book. Definitely worth reading.
I loved the book. Definitely worth reading.
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Welcome,
I am a national bestselling, award winning Brooklyn born and bred author who writes to breathe life back into memory.
Peace & Light,
Bernice L. McFadden
More about Bernice L. McFadden...
I am a national bestselling, award winning Brooklyn born and bred author who writes to breathe life back into memory.
Peace & Light,
Bernice L. McFadden
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