The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

I first came across The Women of Brewster Place when I was researching books to put on my Classics Club list by authors of color. I had never heard of the novel before and had no idea what it was about, but Gloria Naylor won a National Book Award for it back in the 80s, so it sounded like a safe bet to me. I didn't own a copy of it at the time I was putting my list together, but I happened to come across one at a used bookstore a few weeks ago and picked it up for a couple of bucks. Since I'm still trying to catch up to where I should be with my Classic Club books this year, I decided to give it a shot next.

The plot of the novel follows several African American women living at Brewster Place, a cheap block of apartments on a dead end street in an inner city. Each chapter focuses on a different woman, describing the personal experiences and struggles that have brought them to the apartment block. Their stories are loosely connected to each other; some appear in each other's chapters and others have known each other prior to moving into the building, and these relationships provide some structure and continuity to the collection. However, each woman's story is unique and could be read as its own short story. 

The issues each of the women are dealing with are quite heavy and range from abusive relationships to homophobia to mental illness. Their stories explore many of the struggles that Black women face today, shedding a light on some of the many difficulties women of color have had to face over the years in America. Without exception, each of the chapters is extremely well-written and emotional. The women shown are not all blameless figures, but Naylor weaves their stories together in a way that helps readers understand the decisions they make and feel sympathy for them. Out of the women depicted, I probably enjoyed Mattie Michael's story the best. Her life takes a turn when she has a baby out of wedlock and is forced to leave her house at a young age. She spends the next thirty years of her life making sacrifices for her son, and ends up losing most of what she had built for him after he makes some extraordinarily poor choices. Finding herself out of a home once again, she moves into Brewster Place and becomes a mother figure for several of the women there. She appears in many of the stories as a nurturing and level-headed force and is an all-around wonderful character. 

This is one of those classics that is an absolute joy to read. Naylor's prose is easy to understand, yet very emotionally resonant. The characters are interesting to learn about and their stories definitely tug on your heartstrings. It's length is also quite manageable at just a few hundred pages. The ending of the collection was a bit disappointing for me, as it left me a bit unclear about the ultimate message of the novel, but aside from that, this was an excellent read and I'm very glad to have experienced it.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#18 on my list): 57/100 


Total Books Read in 2019: 71