Bailey's Cafe: Amazon.ca: Gloria Naylor: Books

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

A self-professed curmudgeon, the Bailey, whose eatery gives Naylor's ( The Women of Brewster Place ) powerful, evocative new novel its title, serves up lousy coffee and greasy food at that crossroads of the world, Brooklyn in 1948. Along with his taciturn wife, Nadine, Bailey (not really his name; he just didn't change the sign when he bought the place) acts as tour guide, taking the reader through the lives of the cafe's habitues--prostitutes, pimps, madams and other human flotsam. For some, like sweet Esther and Jesse Bell, Bailey's is a last stop before oblivion. For others it offers redemption and rebirth. Their lives are revealed in lyrical vignettes combining first- and third-person narration. The slightly supernatural character of the cafe recalls elements in the author's Mama Day , and the story of Miss Maple, a cross-dressing male mathematics Ph.D. who finds fortune and liberation as housekeeper at the brownstone bordello down the block, is reminiscent of Ralph Ellison's finest work. Underscoring both the specificity of her characters' lives and the general ambience of black existence, Naylor movingly captures life in New York and America ("You can find Bailey's cafe in any town") in the era that followed WW II. BOMC and QPB selections; major ad/ promo; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Like Naylor's previous works, Mama Day ( LJ 2/15/88), Linden Hills ( LJ 4/15/85), and the award-winning The Women of Brewster Place ( LJ 6/15/82), this novel offers interesting characterizations in familiar settings imbued with mythic qualities. The cafe setting allows a range of characters to tell stories from their lives, each in a unique voice. Bailey's and the nearby boarding house (which some call a bordello) offer respite for those who have been battered in the outside world, and their long-lasting scars shape the book's narrations and interactions. The characterizations, distinctly and believably drawn, are Naylor's most interesting since her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place . Recommended for all contemporary fiction collections.
- Marie F. Jones, Muskingum Coll. Lib., New Concord, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Should've Made A Movie Based On This Book, Jun 19 2004

By

Sal Paradise "ethanallen95" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bailey's Cafe (Paperback)

I read this book about a year ago and I must say that this was one of the best novels I've read and my first of Gloria Naylor's. I plan on reading it again and I am sure to get something new out of it. As other reviewers have commented, the stories of the customers of BAILEY'S CAFE are sad, inspirational and funny at the sametime. I've heard that all the customers are actually dead, ghosts caught in bewteen life and death. There was a hint of this when I first read it but I didn't quite pick up on it. Well, I have yet to any other novel from Naylor. This novel talks about issues of racism, class status and there's a little religion and philosophy intertwined in the mix. A great read!

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2.0 out of 5 stars I wasn't moved., May 27 2004

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"trwprid" (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bailey's Cafe (Paperback)

I typically determine which books I should bother to read by considering the ones I've read before. I had read Gloria Naylor's Mama Day and thought it to be a wonderful book: powerful in its mysticism and a wonderful warning about the behaviors of humankind. I was less impressed with this work.

The main characters, Bailey and his wife Nadine, are underdeveloped and less than fully likeable. The short sketches of backstory provided to give the reader insight are...well...boring, to put it mildly.

The plot is constructed by assigning secondary characters their own chapters and letting them tell the story of how they arrived at the "magical" cafe. There is no beginning, middle, or end so the reader comes away feeling like they've been preached at by a reverend who doesn't recount a parable well enough to make a point.

The one device that moved me in the work was the Ethiopian Jewess whom was added to disrupt the flow of activity in and around the cafe. She arrives late in the work and inevitably proved to be all that I cared about. As a walking contradiction she made me think, but given the context of the surrounding novel, I was unsure of what I should be thinking about.

Naylor was trying to make a point. As open as I was to receiving it, it never reached me.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Why I Loved The Cafe ..................., Mar 29 2004

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Venessia Young "Mississippi Chocolate Chick" (Ridgeland, MS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bailey's Cafe (Hardcover)

This book made me want to jump inside and take a seat in the cafe. I mean, I am a college student and I missed some class trying to read this book. From the first page, Ms. Naylor sucks you in with what I call poetry in motion. The words were so beautiful that it was hard to belive you were reading stories of tragedy. From Mrs. Maple the transvestite to Sadie whose mother often referred to her as "the one the clothes hanger missed", it was hard to believe that there are people in the world going through these kinds of tragedies. I dont' want to give the storyline away, but if you want a different type of read, not the kind you read in an hour and forget about then this is the book. I am still sitting here wondering abotu the characters lives and what they would be doing.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pull Up A Seat
I was introduced to Gloria Naylor when the rest of the world was and that was with the production of The Women of Brewster Place as a made for TV movie. Read more

Published on Aug 14 2003 by Ysis

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative presentation; eccentric characters
Naylor mines the denizens of a neighborhood, most of whom eat at Bailey's Cafe, for this collection of short stories, each of which inter-relates some way to the others. Read more

Published on Jun 26 2003 by Peggy Vincent