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cocoaqueenk 's review for:

Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
4.25
reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes

Toni Cade Bambara is a master at voice. Her narrators leap off the page in this chatacter-filled short story collection that she calls "straight-up fiction." 

In "A Sort of Preface," Bambara stresses she is not interested in writing autobiographical fiction because, as she puts it, "I value my family and friends, and mostly cause I lie a lot anyway." 

But these everyday life stories are coated in truth and realness.

I have to confess, I skipped "The Survivor." It lost me from the first page. But I appreciated the rest. The stories that sat with me a while after I finished them include: "My Man Bovanne," "Raymond's Run," "Happy Birthday," "The Lesson," "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," and "The Johnson Girls."