Gloria Naylor won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983 for THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE. Her subsequent novels include LINDEN HILLS, MAMA DAY, and BAILEY'S CAF'. In addition to her novels, Naylor has written essays and screenplays, as well as the stage adaptation of BAILEY'S CAF'. THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE was made into a popular television miniseries starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey, who is an ardent fan of the novel and its writer. Naylor has also founded One Way Productions, an independent film company, and is involved in a literacy program in the Bronx.
1996
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ISBN: 0883782634
Format: Paperback, 175pp
Pub. Date: July 2005
Publisher: Third World Press
Gloria Naylor, one of the most celebrated and successful black writers in recent history, has authored this fictionalized memoir of how an invasion of privacy can be taken to the extreme.
After having published critically-acclaimed novels like The Women of Brewster Place and Mama Day, Naylor returns with 1996 . In this startling account, we find Naylor buying a house on St. Helena Island, off the coast of South Carolina. Here she seeks to enjoy life, relax, write in peace, and tend to her garden. However, Naylor's tranquility is ruined by a woman who feels threatened by her presence. This woman's fears spur a massive covert surveillance operation against Naylor in 1996.
For the author, this seems to be just another example of how racism usually translates into gross misunderstanding. This gut-wrenching will certainly be a talker.
Mama
Day
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ISBN: 0679721819
Format: Paperback, 336pp
Pub. Date: April 1993
Publisher: Random House, Incorporated
The beauty of Naylor's prose is its plainness, and the secret power of her third novel is that she does not simply tell a story but brings you face to face with human beings living through the complexity, pain and mystery of real life. But Mama Day is a black story as well as a human story, which is, paradoxically, what makes it such an all-encompassing experience. A young black couple meet in New York and fall in love. Ophelia (``Cocoa'') is from Willow Island, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia but part of neither state, and George is an orphan who was born and raised in New York. Every August, Cocoa visits her grandmother Abigail and great-aunt Miranda (``Mama Day'') back home. The lure of New York and the magic of home and Mama Day's folk medicines and mystical powers pull at the couple and bring about unforeseen, yet utterly believable, changes in them and their relationship. Naylor interweaves three simple narratives,Cocoa and George alternately tell about their relationship, while a third-person narrative relates the story of Mama Day and Willow Island. The plot is simple; the mystical events of the novel's second part throw a retrospective glow across the more unprepossessing first part, revealing a cornucopia of spiritual and religious themes throughout. Naylor's (The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills) skills as a teller of tales are equal to her philosophical and moral aims.The rhythmic alternation of voices and locales here has a narcotic effect that inspires trust and belief in both Mama Day and Naylor herself, who illustrates with convincing simplicity and clear-sighted intelligence the magical interconnectedness of people with nature, with God and with each other. 'Publishers Weekly
The Women of Brewster Place
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ISBN: 014006690X
Format: Paperback, 192pp
Pub. Date: June 1983
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
The Women of Brewster Place chronicles the communal strength of seven black women living in decrepit rented houses on a walled-off street in an urban neighborhood. Mattie Michael, the matriarch of the group, is a source of comfort and strength for the other women. Etta Mae Johnson is a free spirit who repeatedly gets involved with men who disappoint her. Kiswana Browne embraces racial pride and eventually accepts her mother's middle-class values. Lorraine and Theresa are lovers; when Lorraine is gang-raped, she is deeply troubled by the attack and murders Ben, who is one of her few supporters and the janitor of Brewster Place. Cora Lee loves her babies, while Ciel is on a path of self-destruction, having suffered a series of personal disasters.
The Women of Brewster Place is a moving portrait of the strengths, struggles,
and hopes of black women. At the end of the novel, the women demolish the wall
that separates them from the rest of the city Gloria Naylor weaves together the
truths and myths of the women'd lives, creating characters who are free to
determine the course of their lives, embodying the self actualization tradition
of the Harlem Renaissance.
Naylor's other books are Bailey's Cafe, Linden Hills, Mama Day, and The Men of
Brewster Place. The Women of Brewster Place, her first novel, won the American
Book Award for Best First Novel in 1983.
Bailey's
Cafe
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ISBN: 0679748210
Format: Paperback, 229pp
Pub. Date: September 1993
Publisher: Random House, Incorporated
Welcome to Bailey's Cafe, the most mythically real eating place you've ever walked into. Presided over by Bailey himself and his helpmate, Nadine, it is a magnet that draws a wide variety of society's detritus, each with her own story to tell. There is Sadie, whose addiction to alcohol is second only to her mania for cleanliness; Sweet Esther, who takes nothing but white roses for her very particular favors; Peaches, whose badly mutilated face is in sharp contrast to her goddess's body; Miss Maple, a transvestite who makes a handsome living by entering soap flake contests; and Mariam, the Ethiopian child who may be the bearer of a miracle. One would call them misfits all, but in the magical aura of Bailey's Cafe, as the new year approaches, each becomes a universal creature of biblical stature.
Men of Brewster Place
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Amazon
ISBN: 0786864214 When Gloria Naylor first burst onto the literary scene with her exploration of a small
urban town, she grabbed the attention of readers and critics alike, propelling her toward
literary stardom. THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE, her landmark first work, was awarded the
National Book Award for first fiction in 1983, and was made into a popular television
miniseries starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey. The small enclave of women that Naylor
introduced struck a resounding chord with readers everywhere, and now Brewster Place is
back. In THE MEN OF BREWSTER PLACE, the other side of the story of the residents of this
decaying urban housing project is told, with the same rich grace, humor, and compassion
that Naylor brought to THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE.
Format: Hardcover, 173pp
Pub. Date: April 1998
Publisher: Hyperion
Some people you will meet when you read THE MEN OF BREWSTER PLACE include:
Brother Jerome: His blues speaks for everyone on Brewster Place.
Basil: Instead of becoming the man his mother wanted him to be, his obsession with repaying his debt to her forces him to become a victim of his own devotion.
Eugene: He is torn between the pull of his family and the urge to re-create himself into a person even he does not understand.
C. C. Baker: He finds that his desire for power over people and places he cannot control renders him powerless.
Moreland T. Woods: After putting his own self-service before that of others, he finds himself mocked by his selfishness.
Abshu: Humor brings Abshu and Brewster Place a sweetness in the gathering dusk.
Ben: From beyond the grave, he serves as the Greek chorus; he sees it all and comes as close as one can to understanding the men and women of Brewster Place.
Gloria Naylor has once again cast her passionate and knowing eye on a world she has made her own, a world of sadness and glory. Richly crafted and deeply satisfying, THE MEN OF BREWSTER PLACE is certain to please readers of Naylor's previous works and attract new fans as well.
Linden
Hills
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ISBN: 0140088296
Format: Paperback, 304pp
Pub. Date: February 1995
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Related Links
Gloria Naylor "Unofficial" Homepage
http://www.lythastudios.com/gnaylor/
