They came together, propositioned, bargained, and slowly worked out the consummation of their respective desires.Naylor’s construction of Brewster Place’s beginnings seems like a plaintive evocation of a story that already lives in the crevices of a bygone past. Or the tale of someone who has lived their years and finally taken respite to talk of their unholy beginning that was marked for a cramped existence in this world. They gradually established their space and mellowed into an old age. Gratitude is expressed for the years they lived, the endless hours they worked, the shelter and protection they bestowed on others. They will be thought of, remembered, perhaps with great affection but their very existence wouldn’t be a pleasant reflection on those bound with them. Brewster Place is a street where life blooms and endures, but also suffers from asphyxiation and demands escape from its griminess, odor, discoloration, confinement, and the intermittent violence and pain. For some, it was meant to be a part of a journey, but ends up being the destination. For some, it’s a connecting tunnel to something, where there is hope at the end; for freshness and happiness, for something better and beautiful. The sigh turned into knot of pity for the ones that she knew would die. She pitied them because she refused to pity herself and to think that she, too, would have to die here on this crowded street because there just wasn’t enough left for her to do it all again.For Mattie Michael, Brewster Place was an impermanent shelter which turned into a permanent one. Mattie never actively looks for an escape towards something else. Because there wasn’t enough left for her to do it all again, she seems to be fiercely guarding whatever was left of others; Etta, Ciel, her son Basil. Perhaps because her own splintered life is not mendable, she is very quick to discern any fissures that might erupt in the lives of those around her. Mattie’s attitudes and responses are almost prophetic. She can intuitively sense a calamity. Etta Mae Johnson is looking for an escape that would come in the form of marriage. But for a woman who has lived her life not caring for other’s opinion, this sudden desire for matrimony seems complex and paradoxical. Cora Lee envisions an escape too, but for her children. They couldn’t be left moldering, like her, amidst stale food and unwashed dishes. Babies grow up, babies need Shakespeare and poetry, they need fresh air and education, and a life that will grow out of the claustrophobic space of Brewster Place. For Kiswana Browne, Brewster Place is a refuge for her idealism. A dingy playground for the assessment of her revolutionary design. Her escape into the modest Brewster Place apartment, from Linden Hall and her middle class upbringing, seems to be rather synthetic. Linden Hall keeps permeating into Brewster Place in the form of ‘designer jeans’ and ’70 dollar cheques’, and a mother who doesn’t agree with the Kiswana’s representation of black identity. Black isn’t beautiful and it isn’t ugly-black is! It isn’t kinky hair and it’s not straight hair-it just is.But they make me try to feel like a freak out there and you make me feel like one in here.’In Brewster’s Place, individual desires are pitted against the group. Lorraine’s and Theresa’s existence in Brewster Place seems to have been reached after a past inundated by escapes, from society and its disapproval of homosexuality. ‘Lorraine, who just wants to be a human being-a lousy human being who is somebody’s daughter or somebody’s friend or even somebody’s enemy..’ The rasping conflict between the two women regarding their attitudes towards the group speaks of a deep underlying contradiction. Lorraine wants to be accepted, she wants to fit in, she wants an identity which is somehow also configured by society and its perceptions - something it doesn’t consider unwholesome. Theresa resents this neediness, ferociously proclaims her difference, and wants to draw the line and secure an individual space unfiltered by the judgment of the group. There is rebuttal of society but at the same time an anger that arises from the lack of acceptance. Theresa’s strong avowal of her difference and Etta’s drive towards matrimony, perhaps, speaks of a subliminal need for acceptance. What is most fascinating about Naylor’s book is how beautifully the individual stories are merged with a collective consciousness. They are extraordinary and unusual; the women of Brewster Place. They have all survived damage and loss, and reparation has come in the form of a sisterhood, where they watch and understand, and share their perspectives on their own and each other’s life. None of them have been happy in the traditional gender roles; they have all in some way been victims of patriarchy and abuse. The peace and empathy that has arrived and stayed with the intermingling of the tales of the past and the struggle of the present provides beautiful sense of stillness and comfort. And it is Brewster Place that remembers this narrative of individual alienation and communal intimacy, imparts it the dignity it deserves, the refuge it needs, as the lives and stories of its coloured daughters unfold. They were hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleased, these women of Brewster Place. They came, they went, grew up, and grew old beyond their years. Like an ebony phoenix, each in her own time and with her own season had a story.
The Women of Brewster Place was an intersting novel to read. It represented the life of women today and then and the struggles many of them faced and still are facing. Gloria takes each woman and places them in the same home, Brewster Place. This place was not a pretty one; it was broken down, tiny, clustered, dirty, and dangerous. Brewster Place is last resort for many people and/or the only affordable place at the time. Each woman have a story. They all have a story to tell in where it explains why they are where they are, their plans to move on, and hidden insecurities and fears in life. Each story is connected to one another. The role model of all the women comes straight from the beginning; she is the tree trunk and everyone else branches from her whether it is using her for comfort or using her to hide their own insecurities. Gloria makes this novel protray how women are viewed in societies. These women had many similarities, but the most important while living in Brewster Place was hope. Every individual women had hope to leave Brewster Place and make a better living for themselves. For example, Loraine struggled to keep her hope of being accepted for being a lesbian. Though she felt like giving up and losing hope, she did not. It was an obsticle for Loraine living in a small area where most of the people do not accept her sexual orientation; she still kept living and hoping. I enjoyed The Women of Brewster Place and indeed do recommend it.
Do You like book The Women Of Brewster Place (1983)?
Brewster Place is a fictionalized urban-housing development that black people (who are, in truth, ''nutmeg,'' ''ebony,'' ''saffron,'' ''cinnamon-red'' or ''gold'') have inherited from a succession of other ethnic groups over the years. The difference is that while the Irish and Italians used it as a jumping off place for the suburbs for the black women (black men have only minor roles) it was the end of the line fighting a hostile world with love and humor. It wasn’t until I finished the book did I become aware that it has a following and was a television mini-series in the 1980s. Possibly that is why I had issues with this story, I felt I was reading the scripts from “Good Times.” (If you are too young to remember that television show, google it.) Also, I am not a big fan of mythical writing. Nothing supernatural happens yet it is mythic, especially in the dream references. For me this was a good but not great read. I’m sure others would disagree.
—Martie Nees Record
Astonishing, ferocious, a standout among books written in the Af-Am fiction! What I found endearing about this novel was Naylor's complex writing style and how the seven vignettes from seven different perspectives resonate with us all, regardless of race or creed or gender. I've watched the television adaption of this incredible novel and although equally outstanding (I mean come on Jackée, Robin Givens, Oprah Winfrey, Lonette McKee AND Lynn Whitfield-A+in every sense of the letter!) the book was unequivocally the best novel I've ever read! Why? Naylor puts a positive spin on what it's like to live in a low-income New York project and brings an aura to each and every character. She weaves the story of every woman I've met into these characters and I could see myself reading more of her works. If you are apart of a book club or an Afro-American lit/studies class/program and haven't picked up this novel, you're missing out. A thought provoking, psychological read at it's best!
—Demiere Lee
This book is pretty short, but it manages to cover a wide variety of social justice topics in a way that is brutal and heartwarming by turns. This book shows the plight that African-American women faced through seven different characters. Each story covers a different character, describing the love, loss and friendships that have led them to the decrepit urban apartment that is Brewster Place. The prose and symbolism is beautiful, the stories are powerful and you rapidly learn to love the characters and feel their pain and joy.
—Kelsey Hanson
