Mama Day by Gloria Naylor  (66)
$11.16
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In prose which evokes the blues lyrics that provide this novel's background, Flowers ( De Mojo Blues ) tells a prepossessing modern fable about loyalty in the sonorous voice of a third-person narrator, a "griot" (storyteller) also named Flowers. This alternately playful and solemn tale focuses on the love between Lucas Bodeen, a suave, piano-playing bluesman, and Melvira Dupree, a stubborn conjure woman. In 1919 they leave the Mississippi Delta for Memphis, on a "hoodoo mission" to locate Melvira's elusive mother, but before finding her they're drawn to rollicking, jazz-infected Beale Street, a stopping point for many hopeful Southern blacks on their way north. The author downplays Beale Street's violence, drugs and prostitution in favor of its lively atmosphere and the creative people, who in his view make up a trustworthy, cooperative "tribe." Flowers's characters lead by example: Bodeen, though inclined to wallow in the blues, kicks his whiskey habit, while Melvira looks for ways to help rather than harm with her dangerous magic. Skeptics will find that good luck prevails rather too frequently here; nevertheless, this is a spirited effort, one that even includes a cameo by the young Zora Neale Hurston.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In a style that flows as smoothly as the music that forms its core, Flowers ( De Mojo Blues , Dutton, 1986. o.p.) has woven a fable of the South that captures the heart of the blues musician as few others have done before. "Every good man needs a real good woman," sings bluesman Lucas Bodeen at the height of his passion for Melvira Dupree, a conjurer in Sweetwater, Arkansas. But Lucas temporarily loses sight of his need and his love when subjected to the fast life and temptations of Memphis's Beale Street. How Lucas and Melvira pursue separate quests but manage eventually to find each other and to reconcile their love form a pretty, if predictable, tale bordering on fantasy. Flowers, himself a native Memphis blues singer, has captured the time and place to perfection. Readers interested in this culture will be fascinated.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
In prose which evokes the blues lyrics that provide this novel's background, Flowers ( De Mojo Blues ) tells a prepossessing modern fable about loyalty in the sonorous voice of a third-person narrator, a "griot" (storyteller) also named Flowers. This alternately playful and solemn tale focuses on the love between Lucas Bodeen, a suave, piano-playing bluesman, and Melvira Dupree, a stubborn conjure woman. In 1919 they leave the Mississippi Delta for Memphis, on a "hoodoo mission" to locate Melvira's elusive mother, but before finding her they're drawn to rollicking, jazz-infected Beale Street, a stopping point for many hopeful Southern blacks on their way north. The author downplays Beale Street's violence, drugs and prostitution in favor of its lively atmosphere and the creative people, who in his view make up a trustworthy, cooperative "tribe." Flowers's characters lead by example: Bodeen, though inclined to wallow in the blues, kicks his whiskey habit, while Melvira looks for ways to help rather than harm with her dangerous magic. Skeptics will find that good luck prevails rather too frequently here; nevertheless, this is a spirited effort, one that even includes a cameo by the young Zora Neale Hurston.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In a style that flows as smoothly as the music that forms its core, Flowers ( De Mojo Blues , Dutton, 1986. o.p.) has woven a fable of the South that captures the heart of the blues musician as few others have done before. "Every good man needs a real good woman," sings bluesman Lucas Bodeen at the height of his passion for Melvira Dupree, a conjurer in Sweetwater, Arkansas. But Lucas temporarily loses sight of his need and his love when subjected to the fast life and temptations of Memphis's Beale Street. How Lucas and Melvira pursue separate quests but manage eventually to find each other and to reconcile their love form a pretty, if predictable, tale bordering on fantasy. Flowers, himself a native Memphis blues singer, has captured the time and place to perfection. Readers interested in this culture will be fascinated.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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