every food in: The Women of Brewster Place
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Originally published 1982
So I chose this one this week because I kind of vaguely remembered it being a tv show when I was little and honestly, I was so not prepared. It’s a pretty quick read made of character studies for each woman who lives at Brewster Place, and there’s… a lot of violence. Mostly I can handle content like that, and the book metaphorically cuts to curtains before each event happens, so I really definitely wasn’t prepared for the… graphically described homophobic hate crime at the end of the book. So I would recommend it, but with a warning for that scene. You can see it coming easily on the prior pages, so if you need to skip it, just skip ahead straight to the Block Party chapter and you should be fine.
I’m going to admit I'm having a hard time not giving blatant spoilers, but the placement of Kiswana’s story was an interesting lower stakes break from everyone else’s, while simultaneously making you realize her story is less violent/less high stakes because she’s a lot more privileged than the rest of the residents on several levels. It also helps establish a timeline/view on current events when the book was written - I wasn’t even born in 1987, so I seriously appreciated that, as a reader years later. Also without spoilers: the angel food cake comes back in the end, from the first chapter, to end the story, which was a nice touch.
Overall I really loved it, especially Mattie Michael’s chapter, and the way it played with how she remembered things + time. Everyone feels like real people, which I haven’t found to be the case with most fiction I tend towards reading. I still haven’t seen the miniseries, but I’m intrigued to know whether it’s accurate to the book or not now.
Not every character has food mentioned for their chapter, so if they haven’t, I’ve just noted that there’s no food listed but kept their name in the correct order.
Introduction
Smoked cheeses and meats
Scungilli and spinach fettuccine
Homemade vegetable soup and honey nut loaves
Smoked pork and greens
Mattie Michael
Freshly cut sugar cane
Cane syrup and biscuits
Cotton candy
Raw sugar cane
“The name of what’s in the kitchen is pot roast, oven-browned potatoes, and string beans. And I believe there’s even some angel food cake waitin’ to make your acquaintance.”
Liver and fried onions
Oatmeal
Coffee and toast
Creamed chicken and vegetables with biscuits
Etta Mae Johnson
None
Lucelia Louise Turner
Breakfast sausage
Paper bag wine
Coffee
Rice for dinner
Ice cream (mentioned, not bought)
Cora Lee
Burnt rice and a carton of milk
The Two
Boxes of chocolate chip cookies
Smoked honey
Cottage cheese
Penny candy and jawbreakers that change color
Chicken and gravy
Hot black tea from Ben with sugar
Meatloaf with olives (thrown at Sophie)
Oatmeal
The Block Party
Ribs
Angel food cake from Miss Eva’s recipe
Sodas
Coconut cake
Chicken sandwich
Dusk
None
