Rating: 
Summary: Amazing novel
Review: Naylor's Mama Day is not only one of the best books I've ever read, but also one of the most intriguing. This novel takes the reader on a journey that is just mysterious enough to
keep you on the edge of your seat, but revealing enough to present interesting ideas throughout the entire novel. Naylor tackles issues such as individuality, relationships, and
the giving and taking that must occur in each.
The story takes the reader through the relationship of a strong woman named Cocoa and an independent man named George. The combination of Cocoa's rich heritage with George's lack of a past creates nothing short of an explosion when the two take a journey to Cocoa's home island to stay with her aunt, Mama Day.
The title character is a strong, well-respected woman on the island who is known for her ability to cure just about anything with herbal medicine. When the young couple visits the
island and Cocoa is made ill by an evil woman, George's ability to let go is put to the test as he is asked to rely on other people to save his wife.
The story is told through multiple perspectives, making it impossible for the reader to get bored. Naylor's book is an amazingly written novel that will entertain and captivate an
audience, no matter how many times it is read.
Rating:
Summary: A great read for Haloween--or any time.
Review: I am reviewing this book in October and just realized what a great read this would be for this holiday. The core of the book centers around the power of love--but it is pitted against Black Magic of the old Deep South bayou country. Ms. Naylor really knows how to develop her characters, and to make you care about them. This is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: GLORIA NAYLOR FOR PRESIDENT!!!
Review: I had this book for a year before I decided to read it. I didn't think there would be much to it. After I began to read, it was difficult to put it down. Gloria Naylor wrote in a style that brings your mind to life with the story. Your imagination and the vivid imagery that you experience, is the cognitive glue that disallows you to EVER forget it. It was very authentic. The characters had realistic human faults and made the same in mistakes. Some scenarios grabbed at your gut because they're emotionally painful, and they seep into you in a way which insists that you become a part of this tale, but only as a voyeur. Things don't always turn out perfectly here. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. That makes it believable. When I finished the book I felt that a character from the story had narrated it to me from their own mouth while we sat on Mama Day's porch, sipping cold soda. I was so familiar with it by the time I finished, until it was as if I'd been there watching the whole account for those years and when it was over, my visit to that mystical, soul rich, and culture rich southern town had come to an end. I felt much as I had been dropped off at my door by a time machine.(:-) Laugh as you might, but when you read this story you will know exactly what I mean. You'll understand and perhaps say OOOhh, now I know what that reader meant by being placed in the story. I can only say, GLORIA NAYLOR FOR PRESIDENT!(:-) Gloria Naylor, by far, is in the top three of the most superb writers I've ever read. Trust me I read a lot. I think that because Ms. Naylor is such a prolific writer, that this characteristic of her talent becomes the vehicle which transports you into being a part of the story while you read. After reading, some may feel as if they've experienced that "something" that hibernates inside of us when we encounter an important event. The feeling that we get when we know that something special has happened but we don't know what the "something" is exactly. Later it presents itself as part of the vast amount of wisdom that we've accumulated while on our life journey; maybe some twenty or thirty years from now, while sitting in our rockers on the porch as we begin to explain to your great grandchild why the sky is blue. It takes you to another place.
Rating:
Summary: Mama Day
Review: This was the best book that I have ever read!! Gloria Naylor has become one of my favorite authors with this incredible love story and glimpse into the world of mystery. Gloria Naylor's novel touches our inner conscience and causes us to question the thin line between myth and reality. This book brings together many extraordinary beliefs and instills the factors involved in having good strong family values. Gloria Naylor takes a romance and infuses it with the magic and mystery and tragedy that accompanies true love. It's a contemporary love story, a timeless generational saga and tale of the supernatural. Naylor expertly explores and effects several kinds of reconciliation: the rural past and the urban present; myth and history; individuals and communities; faith and logic; the living and the dead.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing, Astonishing and a Masterpiece; Downright Sultry
Review: Mama Day is one of my favorite books of all time. Gloria Naylor's development of time line in this book is amazing and poetic. Time flows through her book like a warm, gentle ocean wave softly shifting the sand on the shore. It warms your heart and places you on the edge of your seat. If you appreciate the simple or the magical, you will be entranced. Naylor is able to paint pictures so vivid with her writing that it is like being inside the book yourself. It was a book that I read in two days because I couldn't put it down. I have already given it as a gift to two other women. This book reaches a wide audience of women of all different ages, classes and races. Mama Day is my favorite book by Gloria Naylor.
Rating:
Summary: Intense and worth the effort.
Review: Reminiscent of the nonlinear narrative in Beloved but much easier to follow, Naylor's story of two elderly sisters and their grand-niece/granddaughter moves between the streets of NYC and the small island off the Carolina coast. Although I can't remember characters' names, certain moments of the text remain with me, such as Mama Day's poignant method of initiating connection with her sister by always calling out, "You there, Sister?" and her brutal showdown with Ruby, a jealous neighbor who dabbles in voodoo. Being the small-town farm girl that I am, I had a lot to learn from Mama Day. And every word was appreciated. I never grew bored, never grew tired. If we must have a "climatic moment" in the novel, then I guess it would be the grueling illness faced by Mama Day's grand-niece, which encapsulates all the tightly woven relationships among the novel's players. This book ends sadly, yes, but very satisfactorily.
Rating:
Summary: A Poignant and Powerful Love Story!
Review: Mama Day is an exquisitely well-written story! Naylor does a stellar job of giving us a "classical novel" with a complex plot which includes doublings and foreshadowings and the folk tale combination. It's a contemporary love story, a timeless generational saga and tale of the supernatural. The storyline spans two worlds. One is the southern island Willow Springs, inhabited solely by the descendants of slaves a place with its own rules and exempt from many of the racist laws of the mainland. The other world is New York City with its millions of people and what seems like madness everywhere. The two worlds meet when Ophelia aka Cocoa(Willow Springs) and George(New York City) meet and eventually fall in love and get married. Of course, it was the intervention of Mama Day who brought them together. I loved Mama Day the nearly 100 year old great-aunt who helped to raise Cocoa. Mama Day was said to know the working of roots, herbal cures and could summon lightning with her walking stick...uum some thought she could even make lighting strike in the same place twice. Mama Day was wise beyond her days and was said to know the true story of "the great, grand Mother" Sapphira Wade, who in 1823 persuaded her master to deed the island to his slaves and supposedly bore him seven sons in just a thousand days...yeah right she had 7 sons in 2.7 years...hmm...that's definitely supernatural. Anywho then Sapphira Wade went onto to kill her master before she vanished in a burst of flame. And since that event there's been a lot of 18 & 23 going on an enigma of an island called Willow Spring. But while Mama's Day world is steeped in superstition and the supernatural, George's world is one of logic, the present and city life. And unfortunately because George cannot believe what he can't understand the two worlds will clash for him. Naylor's writing is ambitious and complex yet smooth, fluid and compelling in Mama Day. Naylor expertly explores and effects several kinds of reconciliation: the rural past and the urban present; myth and history; individuals and communities; faith and logic; the living and the dead. Naylor provides much insight and wit regarding how we should live but most importantly we take away "everybody wants to be right in a world where there ain't no right or wrong to be found." The characters are colorful and sometimes reminiscent of folks we know. I loved rereading this book because there was so much more I discovered the second time around. Gloria Naylor takes a romance and infuses it with the magic,mystery and tragedy that accompanies true love. MAMA DAY has strong political tones, lively social commentary, and yet still manages to warm the heart. I will probably read this book again and again as it's quite simply a great book!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book of all time
Review: Read this, you will not be sorry. The intertwining of culture, mysticism, love, and family is amazing. This book is a work of art and I challenge everyone to look for George in the people in there lives. I know he is in mine. peace
Rating:
Summary: LUSH, HYPNOTIC AND WISE....A CLASSIC THAT WILL MOVE YOU.....
Review: I cried buckets after I read this amazing novel about the ficticious, supernatural Willow Springs that harbored such secrets and such deep, complex relationships and history. I immediately loved Mama Day and her family: the sweet, long-suffering grandmother, Abigail, the independent, defiant niece, Co Co and her husband George. her descriptions of it all are so well-developed and so authentic, you feel that you could just secure a map and drive out there yourself, fully expecting to greet them all with a wave and make instant friends. There are so many timeless touches, yet it's as modern as if she wrote it last month. If you adore well-written fiction and love a serious romance besides, the book is a necessity that you will turn to over and over and over again, as you'll discover a new jewel each and everytime. (With the right screenplay/director/actors/ this would make a great movie.....when will someone take on the challenge?) This is the best book by Gloria ever, and you will cherish it.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: One of the last books that I read in my junior year of high school, Mama Day remains one of my favorite books. It is funny, mystical, and supernatural. But there is something more to Mama Day than what meets the eye. Mama Day is more than supernatural occurences. It is more than a clash of the generation gap and ideals. It is a story of the daily lives of an everyday people who are anything but. That is what makes Mama Day such a spellbinding novel and one that should be read by everyone.
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