I loved that white people were only in the periphary in this novel. It was good to read about the daily live and struggles of black people without it being slavery or constant threats of death from racists Southerners. They just lived lives marked by tragedy and tried their best to be who they were.

I loved Pearl and Sugar's relationship. ( )

I couldn't get through it. The characters felt forced into place, to move the story forward and the writing was...folksy in the wrong way. ( )

The past of the woman who moves in next to Pearl Taylor is plain to her friends, but Pearl sees something in Sugar that she needs. It's set up for tragedy and both hits and skips it by a thread, but the life that others can bring to - or take from - our lives is rich and textured. ( )

Very good. Ties together a sepressed mother's murdered daughter and a young city girl who sells her body in a small town to survive.
[read 2001-18 yr ago] ( )

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 she had soul. People want to be respected and loved and Sugar was no exception. The book is a brutally honest account of her life and the lives she touched and those who were touched by her. This could be anyone's story with a change of details, all the good and bad, the revelations, the events that lead us down one path and not another.

For all the emotions the book evokes, the story is still tenderly told without sparing the reader, a seeming contradiction. Words awaken the senses; you'll feel the heat, fog, fear, love, experience the scents and doubts and longing. And you'll rage against the history that this story represents for there are thousands of personal stories untold just like this one and, unfortunately, they aren't all history. ( )