SOURCE: Whitt, Margaret Earley. “Understanding Gloria Naylor.” In Understanding Gloria Naylor, edited by Margaret Earley Whitt, pp. 1–9. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Whitt provides an overview of Naylor's life and career.

Career

Gloria Naylor's first four novels—The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day (1988), and Bailey's Cafe (1992)—constitute her quartet of novels, the books she planned as the foundation of her career.¹ Each of the novels in turn connects with the one to follow; mention of a character or a place in one becomes the central focus of the next. In the ten years that separate the first and fourth novel, Naylor demonstrates an increased sophistication in recasting character and place. In these novels children die, dreams get deferred, and place, whether literal or mythical, becomes a way station in life's journey. In each novel, a community of women emerges—sustaining...