cover image The Men of Brewster Place

The Men of Brewster Place

Gloria Naylor. Hyperion Books, $22.45 (173pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-6421-8

Fifteen years after publishing The Women of Brewster Place, Naylor revisits that pocket of an unnamed modern city and animates it with a fresh, compelling cast. Brewster Place is populated almost exclusively by African Americans driven there by circumstance rather than by choice. Despite their various misfortunes, the residents are committed to each other and to the preservation of their community. Ben, a neighborhood janitor (and chorus) resurrected from the previous Brewster Place novel, narrates seven tales of neighborhood men and the women who love them. Their travails feature the familiar ills of the inner city, yet Naylor lends these archetypal situations complexity and depth: Basil yearns to be the kind of father he never had but chooses a path that leads to heartbreak; Eugene's restlessness in his marriage and friendship with a transsexual force him to face a difficult fact about himself; Reverend Moreland T. Woods rehearses his political aspirations with maneuvers on his church's board; and C.C. Baker, involved in local drug trafficking, keeps a startling truth from the police. Naylor neatly binds the stories' themes together with Ben's narration and a concluding corner-barbershop scene that offer readers a grace note of optimism that is as credible as it is moving. Author tour. (Apr.)