THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER is a slim novel about a young, overweight 13 year old boy, Shug Aiken, his mother, and his cruel step-father- their lives on the fringe of criminality.
Shug- Real name is 'Morris'- probably after his real father who might have been some kind of gangster from Cleveland. His mother lived and worked there several years ago. Now they live in the middle of a cemetery employed as groundskeepers.
Glenda- Alcoholic floozy, but really loves her son. She wants to protect him from Red, her present lover. She has a 'quasi- un-naturally sexual' relationship with Shug. She doesn't know how to handle this (or her feelings). She should know better, but you can kind of understand how she's in way over her head.
Red- Red-headed criminal and bully. He and his good friend, Basil, locate patients that are homebound. They break into these people's homes and take their drugs- or anything of value. When Shug is old enough (13 years old), they use him to enter the houses. When Red takes him from Glenda, he's supposed to tell her that he's doing,... "Men's stuff".
Jimmy Vin Pearce- An older man who drives a flashy sea-green Thunderbird. He's a chef and tries to get Glenda to leave with him to cook in New Orleans. This falls through and at the end of the novel he was going to work on a cruise ship- Shug was to go live with his grandmother.
The crux of the novel is the murder of Red. Jimmy and Glenda did it, but the scene is never told. It happens in Shug's house and Shug cleans up the carnage- the body is not found. Shug saves one of Red's boots. In the end, probably because Glenda and Jimmy are scheming to leave him, he gives the boot to Basil, and Basil seeks revenge.
Basil is the only one who cares what happened to Red. He probably has killed Jimmy and coming to get Glenda in the end- and maybe Shug.
In the final scene, maybe Shug and Glenda have a sexual encounter. Basil is coming, maybe to murder both of them.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Shug Akins is a lonely, overweight thirteen-year-old boy. His mother, Glenda, is the one person who loves him--she calls him Sweet Mister and attempts to boost his confidence and give him hope for his future. Shuggie's purported father, Red, is a brutal man with a short fuse who mocks and despises the boy. Into this small-town Ozarks mix comes Jimmy Vin Pearce, with his shiny green T-bird and his smart city clothes. When he and Glenda begin a torrid affair, a series of violent events is inevitably set in motion. The outcome will break your heart".
THE MAID'S VERSION is set in two different eras. But it's basically the 60's when a boy visits his grandmother and she tells him of events that occured in 1929.
I wasn't wild about the book, and I liked SWEET MISTER much more, but WINTER'S BONE is clearly his best work.
From the blurb at Amazon-
"Alma DeGeer Dunahew, the mother of three young boys, works as the maid for a prominent citizen and his family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident"?
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