#OwnVoices: The Women of Brewster Place - A Review

Gloria Naylor’s first book, The Women of Brewster Place, takes you through the mistakes, life changes, joy and sadness of seven women who have all by different circumstances arrived at Brewster Place to live. I will warn you, this is not a happy feel good title, but it is so well written that it must be devoured. The women of Brewster Place are complicated and all too human. You will experience everything viscerally, as Naylor traps you in the narrative with her prose. You travel with each player as an observer who sees into the hearts of the women even as they deny truths that they have buried within.

I chose to write about the Women of Brewster Place because each story told manifests right off the page and will live permanently with you as you experience the struggles of being a Black woman. There are choices here that have been made by Black women over and over and will keep being made regardless of where they live. Choices to love, give, take and hate create our stories anew each day. Sometimes they feel futile and full of sorrow, sometimes they feel natural and other times they feel joyful and made of pleasure. I suggest this book for anyone as a way to feel seen and to see.

If you enjoy this book (who are we kidding, you'll love it), also check out its sequel The Men of Brewster Place where you get some insight into the guys who are either outright villains, neglectful, or just sad. And for a different but really close version, try the movie. There is also a book on Linden Hills, a place which is mentioned a few times by different characters.

Penguin contemporary American fiction series. 1983

Format: Book

The stories of seven Black women living in an urban ghetto evoke the energy, brutality, compassion, and desolation of modern Black America

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#OwnVoices at Richland Library is a way for African American staff to provide thoughtful and well written book reviews, book lists and blog posts to promote African American authors and their work about the African American experience. The series invites our customers to learn one more way we are continuing the conversation in our community and speaking our voice. Find more resources on race, equity and inclusion, here.