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Summary: "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, oh my Lord, what it means to me"
Review: Seven African-American women living in a small corner of an unnamed Northern city, in decrepit, badly heated buildings that have been abandoned by successive waves of workers and immigrants. They have arrived there in different ways, their motives for settling there range from idealism through escape to inertia. Some women have come up from the South to the "Promised Land" of the North, only to find disillusionment and loss. Others have moved in from better parts of the city to escape prejudice against lesbians or in protest against the relentless onslaught of middle class values (oh, horror !) among the upwardly mobile black bourgeoisie. Gloria Naylor tells each woman's story separately, but slowly links develop between and among the various characters. In general, they are stories of the will to survive--- the overcoming, not so much of white prejudice, but of predatory or misanthropic behavior from their own relatives and neighbors. Economic hardship traces its lines on the lives of the women as well. Each one handles lack of money in a different way. To paraphrase an old song, "disappointment was their closest friend". Violence smoulders under the surface, appearing menacingly like shark's fins above the lagoon's surface, only to explode at the book's denouement at the same time that a coming-together occurs. Hope and despair forever wrapped around each other. Naylor's writing is a little patchy, sometimes dropping towards the banal, but occasionally rising to absolute brilliance. The stories do not lag, lead you into the next one, and leave you wishing there were more. The one surprising common thread is the utter hopelessness and inadequacy of all the men. Perhaps this attitude springs from the author's personal experience, but it borders on stereotype. While the female characters are varied, their motives complex, and the way they meet the challenges of life intriguing, the men (except for one despairing alcoholic) are presented as universally weak scoundrels and losers. Since the book is about women, I read it without many misgivings, but it does leave you wondering. THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE deserves a solid spot in the annals of American literature for its language and for its portrayal of African-American womens' lives for a worldwide audience. Brewster Place is a metaphor for America, something like Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row". Though things have changed, even so, too many daughters of Brewster Place still "wake up with their dreams misted on the edge of a yawn."
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Summary: The Women of Brewster Place
Review: The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor, published in 1982, is honestly one of the best books I've ever read. I enjoyed this book greatly and I would recommend it to anyone who has trouble reading. I find it hard to find books that hold my attention start to finish, and The Women of Brewster Place was really a fast read and Gloria Naylor definitely held my attention through out the whole book.
The book is a contemporary fiction, that tells you the story of seven black women's lives, how there lives are intertwined and how there experiences led them to Brewster Place, a rundown old brick building, on a dead end street. Each woman has her own chapter and it's like reading a different short story for each of there lives. Gloria tells each women's life as if you are there with the women, experiencing there heartaches and there happiness right by there side.
"They were hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleased, these women of Browser Place. They came, they went, grew up, and grew old beyond there years. Like the ebony phoenix, each in her own time and with her own season had a story" a quote from the book where Gloria Naylor tells of the women who lived at Brewster.
The main characters in this book were the seven women. Mattie Michael the oldest, had a hard life raising a child on her own, and becomes a source of comfort and strength, for the other women of Brewster. There's Etta Mae Johnson, one of Mattie's good friends, even before Brewster, struggles with her free spirited lifestyle, and always choosing the wrong man. Another is Kiswana Browne, whose very proud of her black heritage, deals with her mother's constant opinion on her life. Also there's Ciel Turner, who's life has been full of personal disasters concerning her children, is cared for by Mattie. Another women is Cora Lee, a young unmarried mother with many children, who makes changes to better her life as a single mother after Kiswana helps her. The last story is about two lesbian women Lorraine and Theresa, who are looking to fit in.
It's a very realistic book, dealing with issues, such as teen pregnancy, violence, sex, and rape. It gives you an insight into the culture of some African American women, and some of the struggles they go through, and what they do to over come their hardships.
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Summary: Response To The Book
Review: This book had a very interesting, but disturbing plot in some spots. This was well written and was able to keep my interest through out the book. One of the most disturbing people you meet in the book in my opinion is Cora Lee and her obsession with babies. For the type of Fiction that this was it was very interesting. I myself am more interested in Sci-Fi books but this was still a well-written book and was able to keep my interest. One thing this could needed could have been a little more detail in regarding the women's state of mind when some of the more important events in their lives occurred like when Cora heard that she can make real babies what was she really thinking at that point in time.
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Summary: A haunting and symbolic look at one block and its stories
Review: This book has a haunting, tragic air to it, as it follows seven different stories of people in a crumbling community walled off from the rest of the city. The stories are sad, and very realistic, and the reader is never sure that any of the characters really learn from their experiences - just like people in real life. Ms. Naylor writes with a poetic beauty, her work full of symbolism and descriptions that leap off the page. The reader is in the room for the heartbreak and the healing experiences of these women. I recommend it for everyone!
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Summary: A must read novel...
Review: This book is one that must be savored like fine wine. It is an excellent read for anyone who loves to hear a good story, while simultaneously learning a lesson about human nature. Naylor proves she is a genius with this masterpiece. This is definitely among my top five books of all time. It is great! A+
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Summary: Great story of the African American Experience!
Review: This book was amazing and it captured the lives of many different kinds of women. The women of brewster place talked about the stuggles of women who came from many directions of life and came together at brewster place. This book talked about homosexuality to a woman who struggled and went through harsh conditions trying to raise her son. This book also encounters the unity the brewster women had towards the end and how they overcomed their many downfalls to reach their idea of success. I believe this book captures the many stories of how African Americans struggled as far as just living life. It also celebrates the vitories of the whole African American female experience. All th e women in this book survived and accomplished many things even though they were surrounded by poverty and torn down neighborhoods. I recommend this book to anyone of any ethnicity, race, or culture, because it allows people to look how others survived their struggle and reached the top of their mountain!
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Summary: Too touchy-feely
Review: This book was just a little too sympathetic for me, each and every character seemed to display a "poor-me" attitude. I don't like the idea of women as victims, it just doesn't interest me. The language was mediocre, dialogue below that, and the tone was just depressing.
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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This story expressed the need to tear down barriers in the world, where poeple are not seperated because the color or their skin and the character of enviornment in which they live. "The edification of one another, in order that you can up lift one another to a higher level."
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Summary: Beauitful ! Even the movie... My first but NOT my last
Review: This was the first novel of Gloria Naylor's that I read and it was truly awesome. As my assignment this past semester(Jan-May 2000)my professor wanted me to read every novel by Naylor in the order they were written and published. Since I "LOVE" to read and am coordinator of my own book club, this was simple for me. I'd seen the movie, The Women of Brewester Place countless times and loved it. The Women of Brewester Place is beauitfully written and is a touching story about seven Black women, with only one thing in common. They all reside in Brewester Place, a dead end street with a brick wall to keep them from the other side. These ladies give us a inside view into their lives. We see the trials and tribulations each of them has or come to endure. We see why they live as they do and come to love the strength and courage they come to possess before it's too late for them all. The most compelling part of the book to me was the part entitled, "The Two." This part of the book is heartwarming, gripping and surreal and it truly leaves an impression on you. I cheered for these women as they came into their own and was ready to cuss them for being so naive and passive at times. However, this book was just entertaining as the movie and gives a more indepth look at each of them. One thing I can say , this was a book who's story seemed to have gone straight from the pages to the screen. We rarely see that where books are concern these days. I recommend this heartwarming novel.
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Summary: Uneven.
Review: Two problems: Naylor tries too hard to substitute genuine feeling with an explosion of mixed metaphors that often muddle the emotion being evoked. Secondly, some of her dialogue is flat, in particular, the conversations between the young activist and her skeptical mother; they seem written for television. The best chapters, however, are miracles of characterization, especially the first and second. The dream sequence is also excellent, a cathartic and uneasy moment involving the spontaneous destruction of a wall where a terrible tragedy took place.
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