SOURCE: Fowler, Karen Joy. “Serving Lost Souls.” Chicago Tribune Books (4 October 1992): 6.

In the following review of Bailey's Cafe, Fowler argues that the beauty of Naylor's prose prevents the emotional pain of the characters from becoming overwhelming.

Geographically, Bailey's Cafe is everywhere. It can be entered from the real world at any point; its address is despair.

In Bailey's Cafe, the audacious and mesmerizing new novel from Gloria Naylor (The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills and Mama Day), the author tells us the stories of some of the people who find the cafe. Memorable and musical, harsh and funny, strange and familiar, these stories are narrated, for most of the book, by the cafe's cook and manager. Bailey is not his name, but he lets us call him that. He is a wonderful character, full of humor and insight, and his voice sings us through the painful parts...