5th out of 112 books
—
86 voters
Sugar (Sugar Lacey #1)
by
Bernice L. McFadden (Goodreads Author)
"Strong and folksy storytelling...think Zora Neale Hurston...Sugar speaks of what is real." --The Dallas Morning NewsFrom an exciting new voice in African-American contemporary fiction comes a novel Ebony praised for its "unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end." The Chicago Defender calls Sugar "a literary explo...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
January 2nd 2001
by Plume
(first published 2000)
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I just finished reading this book for the second time after ten years. So much respect is due to Bernice Mcfadden. She's a wonderful writer and storyteller. Her style is amazing. Her excellency in character analysis is outstanding. It was impossible not to fall in love with the characters or at least have an understanding of how or why they are the way that they are. I couldn't get over the language of the narration. So beautifully written. I definitely can't wait to read the sequel. This is a b...more
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 take it and read...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 take it and read...more
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 beginning to end, it was an incredible...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 beginning to end, it was an incredible...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
The story of Sugar makes you feel. I really can't describe the emotions I went through, except for wanting to hug everyone I know and love...and kicking a**es of everyone who ever did something wrong to me or my family.
This is a MUST READ. Bernice L. McFadden has a true gift of getting you emotionally involved in her stories. I'm still trying to figure out why this isn't on film.
This is a MUST READ. Bernice L. McFadden has a true gift of getting you emotionally involved in her stories. I'm still trying to figure out why this isn't on film.
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 in from the beginning and held y...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 in from the beginning and held y...more
Dec 28, 2012
Karen Miller
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Karen by:
Brothers and Sisters Book Club
This book that has to be a new classic!
The story begins in 1940 which a young teenage 'negro' girl is brutally murdered, her 'private part' cut out and left alongside the road next to her butchered body. The murder is enough to set her family into a tailspin of despair, and threatens to send the mother -- Pearl -- totally insane as she mourns the loss of her only daughter.
But then, 15 years later, a stranger comes into town. Wearing high-heels, a gaudy wig, tight clothes, and toting a suitcase,...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 going to be done about it... And the...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 going to be done about it... And the...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 people as bla...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 people as bla...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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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, Sugar.
Set in the...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, Sugar.
Set in the...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 if I would have read it had I 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 if I would have read it had I know...more
Aug 06, 2010
Karen
added it
Recommends it for:
no one that likes good endings
Recommended to Karen by:
no one
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
Jun 26, 2010
Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
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/20...
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 reel...more
http://www.jewelknits.blogspot.com/20...
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 reel...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, esp...more
I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning. I think I will blame it all on reader's burn out. All 100% of it. Because once I got into the book I jammed right though it. The story takes place in the Spring of 1940 small town Bigelow, Arkansas and opens with the gruesome murder of a 15 year old girl. I always have a hard time with gruesome and good writing. There are so many great writers out there telling some detailed violent, image burning stories that make you cringe as you read...more
This is a book that stays with you. The themes of redemption and forgiveness and hope and loss are powerful, and are masterfully handled in this brutal novel by Bernice McFadden. I can't recommend it universally, though, as it is graphic in ways that made me wince, and I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive reader. Also, the ending was so downright sad, it was too much. Sugar pushes through the novel, pushes through so much, and I felt like she just got defeated, after all the fight sh...more
I'm not sure I have the words to adequately express the emotions and the tears this book dragged out of me. So vivid and so brutal. I wasn't just reading Sugar's loneliness, the despair, the hopelessness - I felt it. I was left feeling as empty as Pearl. At times I didn't want to put it down, while not wanting to continue reading because I couldn't face what I knew or suspected was to come.
Bernice McFadden has found a true fan in me. Her writing brings to life the tales that parents, grandparen...more
Bernice McFadden has found a true fan in me. Her writing brings to life the tales that parents, grandparen...more
What would a southern Christian woman and a Whore have in common? Nothing, one might say, but life has a way of throwing us a curve. That's what this beautiful story was about. When Sugar Lacey strolled through Bigelow, Arkansas, there was a dark cloud that loomed overhead. Sugar was originally from Short Junction, and happened to stumble across, not by accident, upon Bigelow. She viewed herself as a worthless human being having to sell her body to make rent--that is, until Pearl showed her that...more
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 authors vie to...more
A powerful story told in such realistic terms I felt as though I was there. I want to read more books by this author, so that's a big thumbs up from me. The American south in the 1930s to 1950s was not a friendly place for African Americans. And within their own communities, further dangers infiltrated their everyday lives.
This is the story of a societal outcast, a throwaway life, if any part of you believes there is such a thing. Sugar didn't have a chance from the time she was born and yet sh...more
This is the story of a societal outcast, a throwaway life, if any part of you believes there is such a thing. Sugar didn't have a chance from the time she was born and yet sh...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 substantive; bre...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 substantive; bre...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 her parents, Pearl...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 her parents, Pearl...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
Jun 30, 2008
Aaron
rated it
3 of 5 stars
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 done something different.
I understand there is a...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 done something different.
I understand there is a...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.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mocha Girls Read: Book of the Month: Sugar | 15 | 79 | Mar 07, 2013 03:23pm | |
| The end | 1 | 10 | Jan 31, 2013 01:44am |
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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“ 'Sugar, aint you ever had no good time?' she said with a bit of sadness in her voice.
'What you mean?' Sugar said,...
'Seems to me that I ain't never see you look up from whatever you were doing and just smile.'
'Just smile? Smile at what? At who?'
'Smile into the air, girl!' she said and waved her arm through the air....you better start, 'cause time is running and a life without good times ain't a life worth having.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
'What you mean?' Sugar said,...
'Seems to me that I ain't never see you look up from whatever you were doing and just smile.'
'Just smile? Smile at what? At who?'
'Smile into the air, girl!' she said and waved her arm through the air....you better start, 'cause time is running and a life without good times ain't a life worth having.”

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