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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
These interlocking short stories paint a portrait of the struggles of African American women in the twentieth century. The characters are sympathetic and their stories are at times poignant, inspiring, and horrifying. However, every story is beautifully written, compelling, and full of wisdom. This isn't always easy or fun reading, but well worth the effort.
This book made me feel so much. I was angry, sad, hurt, betrayed, etc. The book is about the lives of several different people at Brewster Place. How they intersect and relate to one another and the community as a whole.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was definitely not what I was expecting. I knew I would read stories of different women from Brewster Place but not stories like this. Gut wrenching, page turning, details that made me feel like I was there. From the poor decision of Mattie’s son Basil, to the heartbreaking details of what happened to Ciel’s children, there was something I related to in each of these women.
funny
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Do you know what this reminded me of? It's like the character back stories featured on the TV show Orange is the New Black, brief glimpses about how all these individual women came to be in unfortunate circumstances, only in this case the women live in a dead-end city tenement instead of a prison. It's moving and elegant and a quick read. One chapter called "The Two" deserves a trigger warning - an atmosphere of hatred against two lesbian women eventually leads to rape and murder.
This won the National Book Award in 1983 for Best First Novel, and was adapted into a TV miniseries in the 1980s starring, among others, Oprah Winfrey. Here is the brief text of Naylor's acceptance speech from the National Book Award ceremony:
This won the National Book Award in 1983 for Best First Novel, and was adapted into a TV miniseries in the 1980s starring, among others, Oprah Winfrey. Here is the brief text of Naylor's acceptance speech from the National Book Award ceremony:
It was through my mother's genes that I received my passionate love of books. But she was never able to indulge fully in that love because she grew up in Mississippi and she wasn't allowed into the public libraries. And so she worked in the fields in her spare afternoons to get the extra money to send away to book clubs. And she made a vow to herself that all of her children would be born in the North. She kept that promise. And throughout my childhood, she encouraged my desire to read. Realizing that I was a painfully shy child, she gave me my first diary and told me to write my feelings down in there. Over the years that diary was followed by reams and reams of paper that eventually culminated into The Women of Brewster Place. And I wrote that book as a tribute to her and other black woman who, in spite of the very limited personal circumstances, somehow manage to hold a fierce belief in the limitless possibilities of the human spirit.
The Women of Brewster Place is an interesting series of interconnected stories, with plenty of joy, tragedy, consideration of race, gender, class, and sexuality. The setting itself is almost like a character. I personally did not think the ending worked very well, but I look forward to the discussion with my online book club hopefully giving me more perspective on this 3.5 star novel.
This novel is amazing. Through interconnected short stories, Naylor paints this picture of growing up in the newly developed projects, and you see how the bliss of having your own community turns into dangerous settings. Naylor uses her writing to speak to the power of Black women in building a community and supporting one another. She also creates a character who is consistently present throughout the novel, and this character (I forgot her name because it has been a while since I have read this) represents this grounding force that reminds everyone of their purpose in community uplift. I feel like she is the embodiment of wisdom and motherhood, as she individually caters to everyone who is in need around her. I would advise a trigger warning, though, because there is a very graphic scene towards the end of the novel, and although disturbing, the scene gives insight into the reality of toxic masculinity and homophobia that plagues the Black community.
I can no longer say that books of short stories don’t work for me. This is the second one that make me want to do a re-read immediately after finishing. I’m glad I did this one on audio because I felt as if I could be watching it on the TV screen. I hope to come back to this one.
I had never read this book, nor watched the miniseries. I enjoyed the structure of interconnected short stories, telling the lives of 8 women all connected by place. Brewster Place is the last or only resort for a group of African American women without a lot of resources, who have been abused or abandoned (in some cases, both), by the men in their lives. These are mostly strong women who survive, but have to endure unspeakable tragedies and acts of violence. The lack of any worthwhile male in their lives struck me deeply, as the men seemed to lack any responsibility for anything other than themselves while their wives and and children were collateral damage. A worthy winner of The National Book Award, it does not necessarily leave you with any hope that these women will see their lives change for the better.
This was another book club pick. I found the concept of this book to be intriguing. The ending kind of ruined the book for me. But, I raise my initial star rating after my lovely fellow book club members explained it to me a little more