Reviews - Les Femmes de Brewster Place

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Les Femmes de Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

543 reviews for:

This is a great book, with the exception of the ending. It was anti-climactic, and it didn't provide any closure for the reader. I understand that the author was being symbolic, but the effect was flat and lifeless and false. It's a shame that the ending was so dull because the rest of the book had kept me hooked throughout. If the end had lived up to the promise of the rest of it then this review would have been a full five stars, no question. As it is, the bad ending can't diminish the excellent story/stories that came before.

caughtbetweenpages's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A beautiful anthology collecting the lives of the Black women living in an under-served neighborhood from the neighborhood's inception to the moment it's torn down. I was especially delighted that the stories didn't exclusively focus on doom and gloom and difficulties, but that there was specifically room made for the beautiful moments of camaraderie between friends and families, specifically the way these generations of women do their best to build one another up even when the rest of the world fails them. There is a lot of sorrow (check the TW list), but the perseverance underlying it all was what kept me reading.

I was a little thrown off by the variety in length for some of the stories (eg. the opening story, Mattie, was about 1/5 of the whole book, whereas others were only a few pages long), because it seemed to grant more weight to some of these women compared to the others, and set me up to expect more of them, but it didn't make it less enjoyable to read overall. It did make it a little hard to pick up on the fact that the collection was moving through time, but again that wasn't a detracting factor to my enjoyment.

Content Warnings

electri7's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

fschulenberg's review against another edition

3.5

challenging sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Enjoyed reading some of the stories more than others. Overall themes I enjoyed reading about were change, community, and loss. I would recommend reading content warnings for this book.

Content Warnings

alexainsworth's review against another edition

5.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Fantastic stories of these women. I love how carefully their stories were woven together over the years. In just seven short stories Gloria Naylor makes you feel like you know each of these women intimately. It’s like we are looking through their bedroom windows and observing their innermost thoughts and feelings. I highly recommend! Theirs a reason people still talk about this so many years later.