As a child Alice had paid the nuns half a crown to adopt a black baby from the mission in Africa - a baby that never appeared. Now a loveless spinster of sixty-seven, still yearning for a daughter, Alice's life is one of dull predictability, unbroken by the ritual visit from her middle-aged relatives. Then one evening Dinah storms into her home. Bawdy, busty and black, enigmatic friend to the wayward and eccentric, Dinah is about to take on Dublin and transform Alice's life - creating a world of unlimited love and miraculous possibilities...
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Irish writer Boylan ( Holy Pictures ; Last Resorts ) opens her fourth novel with a biblical epigraph: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares," and the theme reverberates throughout this engaging tale. In an unnamed Irish city, Dinah, a big-hearted black woman with a lust for life, winds up on the doorstep of Alice, a fearful 67-year-old spinster. As Dinah recounts her mythic (and mythical) past, Alice comes to believe that Dinah is the black baby she "bought" for a missionary donation when she was 12 years old. She welcomes Dinah as her daughter, and Dinah breathes new life into Alice's dull existence. Boylan writes with sureness, aplomb and humor; her metaphoric language crackles with exactitude. She never succumbs to sentimentality or quaintness, even when dealing with subjects as potentially dangerous as brotherly love and the loneliness of old age. Despite the somewhat heavy-handed ironic ending, this is a delightful read.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Alice Boyle, 67-year-old Dublin spinster, leads a quiet, dreary existence until a young black woman mysteriously drifts into her life. She dubs this woman Dinah, after the child she had "purchased" from nuns when she, too, was a young woman. Never mind that Dinah is a fraud. She brings color and gaiety to the repressed spinster, whose only solace has been a cat and the annual Christmas visit from her two nephews and their greedy wives. Boylan has skillfully captured the atmosphere of Dublin and its ordinary citizens who love to drink and spin dreams and con their friends and neighbors. Boylan turns out to be the biggest con artist of all with her ironic plot twists and turns. Enjoy every minute of this, with its exquisite writing and empathetic treatment of very believable characters. Highly recommended.
- Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dinah Comes Home!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Black Baby (Hardcover)
"Black Baby" by Clare Boylan is an incredibly comical story about an elderly,innocent and frail woman,Alice,who adopted a black baby from a mission in Africa for half a crown when she was a child.Fifty years hence, Alice has forgotten all about the adoption until Dinah, her adopted black baby, turns up on her doorstep. Dinah is a little baby no longer, but an oversized black woman dressed in a tight leather and red stiletto heels. They embark on a hilarious journey of discovery that enriches both their lives. They are each others salvation and redemption.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I think that the book was very easy to understand,
By A Customer
This review is from: Black Baby (Hardcover)
The book is about a girl who adobted a child from Africa
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