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So, yeah, this is not, as they say at the movies, The Feel Good Story of the Summer. While it contains beautiful writing, it is also intense, ugly at times, filled with in-your-face violence, profanity and sexual slang, and sadly, not the most compellingly constructed story that I've ever read. In fact, it reminded me a lot of a John Grisham novel in terms of the setting and descriptions, except the author was trying to make it clear that her book is Art, not just pop fiction. For me, the Art was a bit contrived.
It is the story of a woman called Sugar who is trying to figure out who she is. She never knew her parents, in fact was abandoned as a baby and raised in a whorehouse. She lives with emptiness inside and very, very few happy memories as she makes her way as a prostitute. Hers truly is a tragic life. The other main character is Pearl, a straight-laced and kind-hearted older woman who has experienced devastating loss and lives with a large missing piece in her own life. Pearl and Sugar find each other and for a time, there is great hope that the unlikely friendship will yield true change and emotional abundance for both of them. For a time.
The story is set against the goings on of a small southern town populated by the posterity of slaves trying to cope not only with life in segregated America, but also with the after effects of WW2. The people of the town serve to frame and highlight the process of Pearl and Sugar coming together and all the clashes that their different lives and values cause.
In the end, this book continues tragic. Perhaps the author fancies it on a Shakespearean level, but not for me. I don't always need a book to have a happy ending, but I do like for the character arc to have some forward motion. This ride is more like a boomerang. If it were cathartic and authentic in the feel of the ending, I think I wouldn't mind so much. Sometimes a good tragedy really serves to clear the mind and uplift in a sort of backwards way. Unfortunately for me, this one just sputters out, and I found myself unbelieving and frustrated rather than sighing and crying.
It is the story of a woman called Sugar who is trying to figure out who she is. She never knew her parents, in fact was abandoned as a baby and raised in a whorehouse. She lives with emptiness inside and very, very few happy memories as she makes her way as a prostitute. Hers truly is a tragic life. The other main character is Pearl, a straight-laced and kind-hearted older woman who has experienced devastating loss and lives with a large missing piece in her own life. Pearl and Sugar find each other and for a time, there is great hope that the unlikely friendship will yield true change and emotional abundance for both of them. For a time.
The story is set against the goings on of a small southern town populated by the posterity of slaves trying to cope not only with life in segregated America, but also with the after effects of WW2. The people of the town serve to frame and highlight the process of Pearl and Sugar coming together and all the clashes that their different lives and values cause.
In the end, this book continues tragic. Perhaps the author fancies it on a Shakespearean level, but not for me. I don't always need a book to have a happy ending, but I do like for the character arc to have some forward motion. This ride is more like a boomerang. If it were cathartic and authentic in the feel of the ending, I think I wouldn't mind so much. Sometimes a good tragedy really serves to clear the mind and uplift in a sort of backwards way. Unfortunately for me, this one just sputters out, and I found myself unbelieving and frustrated rather than sighing and crying.