Real Life of an MSW

Baileys Café  by Gloria Naylor -A powerful read – quite harrowing in some places, uplifting in others. The 229 pages read more like a series of interconnected stories than a novel. Each story is different in the telling, the voice, and even in the style. Sometimes the writing is philosophical, sometimes lyrical, and sometimes just plain good stories told right. This book has it all. Stirrings of the heart, sympathy, disappointment, anger, resignation, and a lot of humor. As soon as I started reading, I was engrossed. On the first page, Bailey’s Café takes place in 1948 and many years before that. This isn’t your typical novel about a sweet café. “New customers are a pain in the butt… Since they are getting one thing a day: Fried chicken Monday, Hamburgers Tuesdays, Hash Wednesday. Pork chops Thursdays. Fish on Fridays. And weekend open house: breakfast, lunch, dinner your call… so why print up a menu” (31) It’s the place where everyone you will meet visits, there is a narrator who guides us through the introductions of the patrons “Anything worth hearing in this greasy spoon happens under the surface. You need to know that…” (35). This is where customers tell their stories (I won’t identify these characters here, as that is part of the joy of the book— seeing how each of them came to be in their current predicaments). “It’s odd how events can be going on three, four thousand miles from you, deciding your fate on the very ground you stand on but the dominoes taking as long as they do to reach home you never make the connection” (20). “Everyone is from somewhere and has some personal, real, tough struggles, that have brought them to this place. I wouldn’t say it’s a place of healing but a place where they can feel free to be themselves whatever that interpretation may be.” It’s very entertaining to read, meeting all these people and learning about what brought them to this place so far from home…” life is supposed to make you feel” (210)