I'm not sure I have the words to adequately express the emotions and the tears this book dragged out of me. So vivid and so brutal. I wasn't just reading Sugar's loneliness, the despair, the hopelessness - I felt it. I was left feeling as empty as Pearl. At times I didn't want to put it down, while not wanting to continue reading because I couldn't face what I knew or suspected was to come.

Bernice McFadden has found a true fan in me. Her writing brings to life the tales that parents, grandparents, and great-grands never shared, found too difficult to speak of. The weary acceptance of being colored in the Pre-Civil Rights South. Of doing what you have to do just to make it another day.

What a compelling and thought-provoking story of true love, healing, real spirituality, the good and bad of small town life.

And that's about as coherent as I can manage. Off to start This Bitter Earth.