4th Official Sistas With Stories Book Club Meeting!

Hostess: Tara Mars-Lorraine

Book Choice for May 2006: Sugar by Bernice McFadden



From Publishers Weekly- With her eponymous anti-heroine, debut novelist McFadden breaks the mold of a venerable stereotype. Here, the hooker with a heart of gold is instead a hooker with a past so tarnished no amount of polishing can change her fate. As a baby, Sugar is abandoned by her mother and raised by a trio of prostitutes who run an Arkansas bordello. Turning tricks at age 12, and leaving town four years later to try her luck in St. Louis and then Detroit, brings more degradation, along with an ever-hardening heart. Upon her mother's death in 1955, Sugar is willed a modest home in Bigelow, Ark., but when she moves into town, and supports herself the only way she knows, the female population rises in wrath against her. All except Pearl, Sugar's next-door neighbor, who more than a decade ago lost her beloved daughter, Jude, to a vicious rapist/murderer. Pearl is struck by Sugar's uncanny likeness to Jude, and is determined to become Sugar's friend in spite of vocal disapproval. Although the two women are opposites in nearly every way, they bring out the best in each other: Sugar convinces Pearl to loosen up and accompany her to a Saturday night juke joint, and Sugar promises to go to church for two months of Sundays. Hypocritical gossip spreads among the townsfolk and tension grows when it turns out that nearly every married man in Bigelow pays a visit to Sugar, leaving the apparently frigid wives planning to run Sugar out of town. Pearl gives it her best shot to transform Sugar, but both women's painful pasts come back to haunt them in a crescendo of violent reenactments, betrayals and surprising revelations leading to a poignant, bittersweet ending. While hampered by a forced and compressed backstory, a surfeit of maudlin moments and some overwriting that is inadvertently funny, this ambitious first novel will appeal to readers who can appreciate Sugar's determination to come to terms with her past and fashion a viable future. Agent, James Vines. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Food: The Outback Steakhouse







The event was held at Outback Steakhouse on Acadian Thruway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals, which included ribs, coconut shrimp, baked sweet potatoes, and salad.

Once our meals were ordered, we began to discuss this month's selection. Everyone was in total agreement that this book was an amazing read. We discussed how much we each loved Joe, Pearl's husband, and that his character seemed to be like the good old time ideal husband from back in the day. One of the truly good men left in the world. We laughed as we recalled the moment when Joe came home from his trip to find the "new and improved Pearl". All of us were anxious, anticipating that Joe would be angry and perhaps even strike out at Pearl. We were relieved when he embraced her and laughed. We discused how Sugar seemed to be living self-fulfilled prophecy. It was as if she didn't believe that she deserved more, so she never tried to excel to more in life. Many of us were eager to read the sequel, This Bitter Earth, so that we could answer some unanswered questions about Joe's past.

Some of SWS' favorite moments in the book:(WARNING! If you have not read this book, the following comments are spoilers, so do not read on if you do not want to know key points of the story.)* Joe's return home to find Pearl made up ala' Sugar!* Sugar walking in front of her windows naked.* The moment when Sugar walked to the front of the church and could have really let the congregation know about what their preacher was doing outside of the church doors!* When Joe discovered the picture and realized Sugar was his child after all. * Seth screaming for Sugar outside of her door, then seeing Lappy Clayton come over and Sugar open the door to him.* Pearl going with Sugar to the blues club, dressed up with baby powder on her face!* The graphic depiction of the horrible crime Lappy committed against June.
This was definitely a book that kept us talking, laughing, and pondering during our meeting. Do we relate to any of the characters? Were we once "Sugar's" ourselves in our lives? Yes! Did we think Pearl should have been friends with Sugar in the beginning, bringing this wild woman into her home? How in the world did Joe last, living years without sex from his wife? Why didn't Sugar stay with Mary and Mercy when she had the chance? Why didn't Sugar tell Lappy to leave her alone, and run off with Seth? Yes, he had threatened the rest of the family, but she could have let Joe know. Joe would have protected her. Would we really want to know all of our friends and families dirty secrets? Once Pearl knew about the many men who visited Sugar nightly, she looked at everyone differently. Would we rather not know? Probably.

Our next meeting will be hosted in July by Ms. Erica Crawford -the book will be the sequel to Sugar, This Bitter Earth.The exact day and time for our meeting is to be determined.