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A review by inherbooks
Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor
5.0
"If you don't make it home, I'm marrying the butcher.
Love,
Nadine."
well, damn.
Bailey’s Café is a series of interconnected short stories - each chapter belongs to a character stuck in limbo as they tell their tale to the café owner. The stories are complex, moving, and move to jazz – autobiographical, catastrophically, told in a lyrical prose as Ellison described it. We see women living on both sides of the track, of right and wrong, on rocky paths that landed them in Bailey’s Café, a place that exists to catch a break, a pause before taking a step forward (or backwards) in life set against the backdrop of the country also in limbo, at war.
✨
“I guess whoever Bailey was – if there was a Bailey – he knew this place had to be real real mobile. Even though this planet is round, there are just too many spots where you can find yourself hanging on to the edge just like I was; and unless there’s some space, some place, to take a breather for a while, the edge of the world – frightening as it is – could be the end of the world, which could be quite a pity.”
✨
Every story reinforces life’s fragility, a series of decisions that change our trajectory by the second, and lead our paths to cross with one another in ways unimaginable to the human mind. If we took a second longer to decide, I wonder how differently life would play out. While a majority of the stories are about women, one of the stories revolves around Stanley, a man who wears dresses and works as security outside of Eve’s, a ‘brothel’ of sorts. We take a deep dive into manhood, what it means to be a 'man', a Black man, when the world expects them to use fists over words, every time.
✨
“I am a man of peace. I am a sensitive man. I can spend hours with Proust and have been known to weep at a sunset. Those are the qualities I wanted to pass on to my son. I believe he has the capacity to be a great leader. And I’ve tried to teach him that a man rules best when he rules with compassion.”
✨
These words were said during the BEST fight scene ever, I was crying and cheering all at once.
I love everything Gloria Naylor.
Love,
Nadine."
well, damn.
Bailey’s Café is a series of interconnected short stories - each chapter belongs to a character stuck in limbo as they tell their tale to the café owner. The stories are complex, moving, and move to jazz – autobiographical, catastrophically, told in a lyrical prose as Ellison described it. We see women living on both sides of the track, of right and wrong, on rocky paths that landed them in Bailey’s Café, a place that exists to catch a break, a pause before taking a step forward (or backwards) in life set against the backdrop of the country also in limbo, at war.
✨
“I guess whoever Bailey was – if there was a Bailey – he knew this place had to be real real mobile. Even though this planet is round, there are just too many spots where you can find yourself hanging on to the edge just like I was; and unless there’s some space, some place, to take a breather for a while, the edge of the world – frightening as it is – could be the end of the world, which could be quite a pity.”
✨
Every story reinforces life’s fragility, a series of decisions that change our trajectory by the second, and lead our paths to cross with one another in ways unimaginable to the human mind. If we took a second longer to decide, I wonder how differently life would play out. While a majority of the stories are about women, one of the stories revolves around Stanley, a man who wears dresses and works as security outside of Eve’s, a ‘brothel’ of sorts. We take a deep dive into manhood, what it means to be a 'man', a Black man, when the world expects them to use fists over words, every time.
✨
“I am a man of peace. I am a sensitive man. I can spend hours with Proust and have been known to weep at a sunset. Those are the qualities I wanted to pass on to my son. I believe he has the capacity to be a great leader. And I’ve tried to teach him that a man rules best when he rules with compassion.”
✨
These words were said during the BEST fight scene ever, I was crying and cheering all at once.
I love everything Gloria Naylor.