Women of Brewster Place (Naylor) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A] shrewd and lyrical portrayal of many of the realities of black life.… Miss Naylor bravely risks sentimentality and melodrama to write her compassion and outrage large, and she pulls it off triumphantly.
New York Times Book Review


Vibrating with undisguised emotion, The Women of Brewster Place springs from the same roots that produces the blues. Like them, [Naylor's] book sings of sorrow proudly borne by black women in America.
Washington Post


Naylor creates a completely believable, and very frightening, world of degradation, violence and human—very human—courage and sturdiness.
Chicago Sun-Times


[A] moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women.… Gloria Naylor weaves together the truths and myths of the women's lives, creating characters who are free to determine the course of their lives, embodying the self actualization tradition of the Harlem Renaissance.
Sacred Fire

(Refers to the audio version) Tonya Pinkins reads and presents the characters very well, catching the lyricism of each woman's story; the range of emotions is a demanding task… [But] this abridgment doesn't fully capture the power of the whole or the full devastation and pride of Naylor's characters. —Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Library Journal