Getting Mother's Body

Book • 2003
Getting Mother's Body is Suzan-Lori Parks's debut novel, published in 2003.

It follows Billy Beede, a pregnant teenager in 1960s Texas, as she navigates her complicated life and family dynamics.

The story is a reimagining of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, set in an African American context.

Billy's journey involves exhuming her mother's body, rumored to be buried with valuable jewels, accompanied by a cast of eccentric characters each with their own motivations.

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Recommended by Kara Swisher as a funny novel about moving around a body.
Wrestling with America’s (Racist) History with Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks

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