The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories

Naylor, Gloria

ISBN 10: 0453008666 ISBN 13: 9780453008662

Publisher: Highbridge Audio, 1994

Synopsis

The stories of seven African American women living in an urban ghetto evoke the energy, brutality, compassion, and desolation of modern black America. Winner of the National Book Award. Read by Tonya Pinkins. Book available.

About this title

About the Author:

Gloria Naylor (1950-2016) grew up in New York City. She received her B.A. in English from Brooklyn College and her M.A. in Afro-American Studies from Yale University. Her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983. She is also the author of Linden Hills (available from Penguin), Mama Day, Bailey's Cafe, and The Men of Brewster Place.

Review:

Novel by Gloria Naylor, published in 1982. It chronicles the communal strength of seven diverse black women who live in decaying rented houses on a walled-off street of an urban neighborhood. As the middle-aged matriarch of the group, Mattie Michael is a source of comfort and strength. She recalls her past tragedies in flashbacks. Her close friend, Etta Mae Johnson, is a restless free spirit who repeatedly attaches herself to disappointing men. Embracing racial pride, idealistic Kiswana Browne initially disparages her mother's middle-class values but later accepts them. Mattie saves the long-suffering Ciel Turner from self-destruction after she barely endures a series of personal disasters. Kiswana helps Cora Lee, a young unmarried mother, realize that her many children should not be treated like dolls. Lorraine seeks social acceptance, unlike her outspoken lesbian lover, Theresa. When she is gang-raped, Lorraine is deranged by the attack and murders one of her only supporters, Ben, the kind janitor of Brewster Place. At the novel's end the women angrily demolish the wall that separates them from the rest of the city. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About this edition

• Publisher: Highbridge Audio
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0453008666
• ISBN 13: 9780453008662
• Binding: Audio Cassette