Mama Day

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Summary: Learning about the future, means learning about the past.
Review: We as young people need to stop and listen to what our elders have to say. This book show that older people work in mysterious ways. Ms. Nader made me yearn for the grandmother I never knew. She made me stop and listen to what the winds whisper in my ears and what the sun shines in my face

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Summary: Fabulous! A must read for those who appreciate life!
Review: Naylor has managed to weave a beautiful, thought- provoking piece of literature. She uses her words to bring Willow Springs to life and makes the reader want to know each and every character. This is a novel that could and should be brought to a wider audience through film and/or live theater.

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Summary: "Mama Day" shows true love is more than woman meets man.
Review: Gloria Naylor takes a romance and infuses it with the magic and mystery and tragedy that accompanies true love. Set on a enigma of an island, with characters steeped in tradition and superstition, the heroine Cocoa and her great-aunt, Mama Day show the modern reader that love has no rules. Most applealing are the strong women charcters and mesh of modern and traditional. A book tinged with the fantastic; MAMA DAY should appeal to most readers looking for a non-traditional romance. MAMA DAY has strong politcal tones, lively social commentary, and yet still manages to warm the heart. Not a book that will revolutionize 20th century literature, but a good read for those interested in being challenged beyond the typical trash fed to women as romance.

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Summary: A story both tragic and wonderful.
Review: Set in the imaginary town of Willow Springs, "Mama Day" is about the magic of believing and the courage it takes to get there. A wonderful depiction of love and life.

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Summary: Mama Day is torn from the pages of my childhood .!
Review: I first read Mama Day several years ago, and in this summer of 1998 I find myself pulled, once again, into its spell. Mama Day conjures up a world of sights, smells and tastes that match my childhood memories. These are STRONG women - no victims, no wimps, no whiners allowed in Willow Springs. Light, dark and grey - they're all there in Ms. Naylor's prose. What a wickedly beautiful, moving, powerful book ! Thank you Gloria Naylor for conjuring the women of my childhood - for bringing them back to me. I love Mama Day !

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Summary: Wonderfully captivating; one of my all time favorites
Review: Gloria Naylor has become one of my favorite authors with this incredible love story and glimpse into the world of mystery. I rarely read books more than once, but this one so intrigued me, that I have already started to reread it to enjoy the beautiful pictures her words portray. I found myself dog-earring pages to find favorite passages and insighful musings. A wonderful love story set in the mystical south, I highly recommend this fascinating tale.

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Summary: A Student's Perspective - by Katie Stein
Review: Although I was asked to read this book for my honors English class, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gloria Naylor used many wonderful techniques, such as foreshadowing and first person forms of speech to add to the spiritual concept as well as the overall mysteriousness of the book. I loved the mystical side of Mama Day and Willow Springs itself and enjoyed the true love felt between Cocoa and Georga and how thier individual personalities acted towards each other. This is an excellant Novel for anyone who enjoys a modern or contempory book, or even a good love story. I wish Naylor whould make a sequel so that we could find out more about Saphirra and Bascombe Wade as well as Cocoa and her new life.

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Summary: Beautifully written - wonderful book
Review: THis is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. I had to restart it the minute I finished it, because I wanted to continue hearing the flow of the words and language. One of my all time favorite books.

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Summary: One of the best love stories ever written!
Review: Read it now. Don't wait. Enjoy

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Summary: Mama Day
Review: I've been in love with Naylor's text since I randomly picked "Bailey's Cafe" off of the library shelves one August afternoon. Naylor's great gift is character development. Her characters are at once vividly realistic and too exotic to exist. She balances on a tightrope stretched between anecdote and the mythical, and does it admirably well.

Her style is highly feminized and full of integrity. Grittier than Morrison, but with the same taste for the spontaneous, Naylor writes enchantingly from start to finish, making any of her books hard to put down.

"Mama Day" has become my favorite of her works. Granted, it is not entirely typical. Instead of being a piecemeal of viewpoints and stories, "Mama Day" reads as a more full and well-bodied text. The story here is a clever balance between a story of modern-day-woe and disillusionment and the magic of community and family.

As well, this is a story about colonialism of the soul and acquisition of identity, a theme tough to tackle under any circumstance. Naylor, however, uses her easy-to-read prose and her glib-tongued characters to intrigue and entrap, writing the story around both reader and text.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough!