
Getting Mother's Body
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Suzan-Lori Parks
-
By:
-
Suzan-Lori Parks
About this listen
As Willa Mae's only daughter, Billy is heiress to her mother's substantial but unconfirmed fortune - a cache of jewels that Willa Mae's lover, Dill Smiles, is said to have buried with her. Dirt poor, living in a trailer with her Aunt June and Uncle Roosevelt behind a gas station in a tumbleweedy Texas town, and pregnant with an illegitimate child, Billy knows that treasure could mean salvation. So she steals Dill's pickup truck and, with her aunt and uncle in tow, heads for Arizona with Dill in hot pursuit. While everyone agrees it's only polite to speak of getting mother's body and moving her to a proper resting place, it's well understood that digging up Willa Mae's diamonds and pearls will make the whole trip a lot more worthwhile.
The enormously accomplished fiction debut from Suzan-Lori Parks, the 2002 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Getting Mother's Body takes its place in the company of the classic works of Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. But when it comes to an ingenious, uproarious knack for depicting the trifling, hard-luck, down-and-out souls who need a little singing and laughing and lying and praying to get through the day, Suzan-Lori Parks shares the stage with no one.
©2003 Suzan-Lori Parks (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Flipping Boxcars
- A Novel
- By: Cedric The Entertainer
- Narrated by: Cedric The Entertainer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do? If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score.
-
-
The fact that WE readers read a lot. We’re smart enough to know who’s saying what !!!!!
- By Myron JACK Jackson on 01-08-24
-
As I Lay Dying
- By: William Faulkner, Jesmyn Ward - introduction
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
-
-
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
- By Kristina on 11-12-08
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
Harlem Shuffle
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
-
-
Best Read/Listen on Audible
- By Henry Posner on 09-22-21
By: Colson Whitehead
-
Wild, Beautiful, and Free
- A Novel
- By: Sophfronia Scott
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born the daughter of an enslaved woman and a Louisiana plantation owner, Jeannette Bébinn is raised alongside her white half sister—until her father suddenly dies. His vindictive wife refuses twelve-year-old Jeannette her inheritance and sells her into slavery. Now on her own, Jeannette must fight the injustices she faces because of her mixed race. She escapes enslavement and travels from Mississippi to Philadelphia to New York to Ohio, all while searching for purpose, love, and her place in a country torn asunder by the burgeoning Civil War.
-
-
Beautiful
- By AP on 05-19-23
By: Sophfronia Scott
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Middle Passage
- By: Charles Johnson
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the Confederacy falls, newly freed slave Rutherford Calhoun is eager to avoid marrying a prim schoolteacher and boards the first ship he finds moored at a New Orleans port. Unbeknownst to Calhoun, the vessel is a slave ship enroute to Africa. On the return trip, Calhoun is put to work as a cabin boy and quickly assists the newly captured slaves in revolting against the drunken crew. This compelling adventure is filled with a perfect blend of colorful narrative, historical romance and suspense.
-
-
Unique Story, Wonderfully Told!
- By Ingrid A on 10-17-17
By: Charles Johnson
-
Flipping Boxcars
- A Novel
- By: Cedric The Entertainer
- Narrated by: Cedric The Entertainer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do? If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score.
-
-
The fact that WE readers read a lot. We’re smart enough to know who’s saying what !!!!!
- By Myron JACK Jackson on 01-08-24
-
As I Lay Dying
- By: William Faulkner, Jesmyn Ward - introduction
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
-
-
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
- By Kristina on 11-12-08
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
Harlem Shuffle
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
-
-
Best Read/Listen on Audible
- By Henry Posner on 09-22-21
By: Colson Whitehead
-
Wild, Beautiful, and Free
- A Novel
- By: Sophfronia Scott
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born the daughter of an enslaved woman and a Louisiana plantation owner, Jeannette Bébinn is raised alongside her white half sister—until her father suddenly dies. His vindictive wife refuses twelve-year-old Jeannette her inheritance and sells her into slavery. Now on her own, Jeannette must fight the injustices she faces because of her mixed race. She escapes enslavement and travels from Mississippi to Philadelphia to New York to Ohio, all while searching for purpose, love, and her place in a country torn asunder by the burgeoning Civil War.
-
-
Beautiful
- By AP on 05-19-23
By: Sophfronia Scott
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Middle Passage
- By: Charles Johnson
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the Confederacy falls, newly freed slave Rutherford Calhoun is eager to avoid marrying a prim schoolteacher and boards the first ship he finds moored at a New Orleans port. Unbeknownst to Calhoun, the vessel is a slave ship enroute to Africa. On the return trip, Calhoun is put to work as a cabin boy and quickly assists the newly captured slaves in revolting against the drunken crew. This compelling adventure is filled with a perfect blend of colorful narrative, historical romance and suspense.
-
-
Unique Story, Wonderfully Told!
- By Ingrid A on 10-17-17
By: Charles Johnson
-
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- A Hunger Games Novel
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low.
-
-
Bad part
- By Edgars Dumins on 05-19-20
By: Suzanne Collins
-
Invisible Things
- A Novel
- By: Mat Johnson
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When sociologist Nalini Jackson joins the SS Delany for the first manned mission to Jupiter, all she wants is a career opportunity: the chance to conduct the first field study of group dynamics on long-haul cryoships. But what she discovers instead is an entire city encased in a bubble on Europa, Jupiter’s largest moon.
-
-
Disappointing Story Line
- By J. E. N. on 07-10-22
By: Mat Johnson
-
Jazz
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 3 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This novel “transforms a familiar refrain of jilted love into a bold, sustaining time of self-knowledge and discovery. Its rhythms are infectious” (People).
-
-
The audio is not the same as the book
- By Rocio on 03-29-16
By: Toni Morrison
-
Mama Day
- By: Gloria Naylor
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Day, known as "Mama Day", is the elderly matriarch of Willow Springs, a small sea island off the southeast coast of the United States. Mama Day finds herself pitted in mortal combat with dark forces that threaten the body and soul of her beloved great-niece, Cocoa, who has gone "mainside" and married an urban Northerner.
-
-
A Classic
- By Gina on 10-22-08
By: Gloria Naylor
-
Apples Never Fall
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after 50 years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?
-
-
I wanted to love this BUT.....
- By Mary on 09-27-21
By: Liane Moriarty
-
Devil in a Blue Dress
- An Easy Rawlins Mystery
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
-
-
Beware of Mysterious Sexy Women with Big Suitcases
- By Jefferson on 02-13-11
By: Walter Mosley
-
Bastard Out of Carolina
- By: Dorothy Allison
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family - a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard- drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective.
-
-
Not for the Faint of Heart
- By Carolyn on 12-31-12
By: Dorothy Allison
-
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- A Novel
- By: Gabrielle Zevin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.
-
-
This book sucked the life out of me
- By RMan on 08-08-22
By: Gabrielle Zevin
-
The Ballad of the Sad Café
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
-
-
Literate short stories
- By RueRue on 02-23-16
By: Carson McCullers
-
Daisy Jones & The Six
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daisy is a girl coming of age in LA in the late '60s, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s 20, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne.
-
-
I wanted to love this book...
- By Stine on 03-17-19
-
The Fifth Season: Booktrack Edition
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
I would give this less than one star if I could.
- By Christin on 02-12-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
11-22-63
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
-
-
I Owe Stephen King An Apology
- By Kelly - Write Well Academy on 04-16-12
By: Stephen King
Critic reviews
"Getting Mother's Body is a straightforward, light-footed novel with none of the bleak, doomy undertones of Faulkner's; it's just about as funny and not nearly as scary." (The New York Times)
"Though I've read countless novels, I had never read one like this." (The Washington Post)
What listeners say about Getting Mother's Body
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Diana
- 07-22-03
This is what audible is meant to be
Occasionally I listen to a book that I feel is made immensely more enjoyable by being heard as compared to being read. This is one such book. Suzan-Lori Parks has written an excellent book and has acted as an exceptional narrator/singer.
For those just wanting an interesting story, this book has that. I was very curious as to how the author was going to resolve the conflicts in the book, and I was not disappointed. If you like character sketches, you will be delighted in this book. Even if the story had not been interesting, I would have been immensely pleased just to listen to each of her characters speak. If you are a literary person and love a story uniquely told with layers to be explored, this book will interest you as well -- after all Getting Mother's Body does require some digging. I think it would be a great book for a group discussion!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Andrew
- 07-30-03
Just a warning...
Just so you aren't surprised (as I was), the entire book, other than the singing, is narrated in the first person by the author as a variety of poor, southern black folk in the early 1960's. It is humorous, and the diiference in point of view between the older characters and younger characters, particularly as to the evolving racial and social issues of the time, is quite interesting. At first I was somewhat put off by the narrative style, but it grew on me as I came to know the characters' personalities.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Barbara
- 11-15-03
Interesting
I enjoyed this audiobook very much. The characters were very interesting and the narration was excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Jacob
- 03-11-05
Beautiful, heart-wrenching, subtle
I can't understand the narrow-mindedness of some of the reviews above. This is not John Grisham or Danielle Steele. This is equisitely-written, subtle and beautiful character portraits and a fully-realized, 3-dimensional plot with real lives and real people. Don't expect an action flick or a cheesy romance. There's a reason she won the Pullitzer Prize.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Paula Beck
- 10-23-03
Enjoyable
I enjoyed this one...it felt like a priveleged insight into the lives of people so different from myself. The main character's "matter-of-fact" attitude toward her unfortunate circumstances somehow inspired me. I like anything that helps me expand my attitudes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Martha
- 04-19-05
Great characters!
this was a fun, fun book. I just love picturing in my mind these wackey people
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Barbara
- 07-25-03
Good Read
What a good book to listen to. I usually listen at work but this time I burned CD's and listened in the car. I could have done without the singing in it but I guess it added to the story. The story line was good, the characters believable. Poor Bille Beede! I felt for her and her life and wanted so much for her to have something good happen to her. I guess you will have to listen and find out in the end if Bille does get a better shake out of life!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- James
- 07-11-03
Very Good.
My first audible book and was very satisfied.The story is well read and interesting.It's a real good mix of humor and drama.The pacing is good,I never lost interest.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C
- 11-08-17
Suzan-Lori parks a Great American writer
every piece of suzan-lori parks writing feels like a missing page in the history book that was buried and has been resurrected and brought to life. getting mother's body is no exception. I am always amazed by her typical deft characterization and ability to convey the drama inherent in the daily lives of her characters and the peoples they represent. suzan-lori parks and this piece should be mandatory reading for any Young American.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Laura
- 01-12-04
Well crafted
This is a well crafted first novel from Pulitzer-prize winning Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Parks does her own narration and singing (with her husband on guitar), which adds a great theatricality to this audiobook.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!