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Book Review
The Women of Brewster Place
The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria
Naylor, published by Penguin Books.
$5.95
The Women of Brewster Place is a novel
which deals with the elasticity of the
human spirit. The novel is written in the
form of seven short stories, each of which
contains loss and pain in varying degrees.
At the end of each story there is a sense
of recovery, a spirit renewed.
Such acts of renewal do not begin with
out catalysts though. There must be some
thing that tells us that life cannot con
tinue status quo. In these moments, in
the The Women of Brewster Place, each
woman must make her way back to a road of
hope. Mattie, who appears in almost every
story, is a woman whose courage and humor
are support for, if not actual salvation
of, others.
Gloria Naylor is the book’s lyrical
voice of confidence. She portrays a world
littered with mindless violence, abasement
and dejection, but a world balanced by a
spirit of kindness and stamina.
There is an almost liquid quality to
these stories, with each woman’s life
flowing into the others. Men in this
novel are generally placed at various
moments to portray real failure, violence,
and dereliction. There is no man in this
novel who takes responsibility for his
actions or attempt to change. This is a
novel devoted to women and their ability
to survive with spirit intact, in defiance
of their circumstances.
These women survive by not giving in.
They are determined to make all they are
able to out of their lives. No single
character carries the weight of any story,
and there is a spiritual quality to every
woman in this novel; every life is
important, and each woman is bound to save
herself.
But what makes this novel compelling is
that it becomes equally important to the
reader that these characters make some
thing better of their lives.
One of the crucial scenes in the novel
is a gang rape of a lesbian named
Lorraine. The leader of this gang felt
his existence threatened by ,a woman who
did not need him sexually. It is in the
face of this unprovoked brutality that the
women's spirits are severely'tested. They
must survive Lorraine’s destruction, and
they do. There is no selfish strength in
this book; each character must make a con
tribution to the independence of others.
Perhaps, then, independence is an
almost palpable essence in this book.
Men, husbands, children, or parents cannot
live our lives for us or be our substi
tutes. Each woman has a life that must
endure, and she must live her own life.
What the The Women of Brewster Place is
that in spite of life’s tragedies and
setbacks, one’s spirit can transcend and
somehow persevere.
The Women of Brewster Place is perhaps
one of the most poignant novels you’ll
ever read. It is certainly not a happy
one, but for each horror there is a
restoration. The Women of Brewster Place
is the affirmation of the women’s inner
strength that we are, because of our
oppression, all too often called upon to
use.
-Diane Smith
If you would like to be part of a
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Jan. 15, 1986 at 8 p.m.
For more information, call the
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of the Carolina Union.
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