Bailey's Café

By: Gloria Naylor

Narrated by: Augustus Williamson, Medwin Johnson, Cedric Ward, Cheryl La Mar, Bonita Harvey

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Bailey's Café, the most mythically real diner you've ever walked into. Presided over by Bailey and his helpmate, Nadine, it is a magnet that draws a wide variety of the "colored" people of 1948, each with a story to tell. Bailey tells us about his love for his strong, quiet wife, and shares his haunting memories of World War II.

Then, one by one, we hear from the café's regulars. There is Sadie, whose addiction to alcohol is second only to her mania for cleanliness; the oddly maternal Eve, whose bordello accepts only fresh flowers as legal tender; Sweet Esther, who takes nothing but white roses for her particular favors; Peaches, whose badly mutilated face is a sharp contrast to her beautiful body; Jesse Bell, who cannot overcome her lust for heroin; Miss Maple (whose real name is Stanley); and Mariam, the Ethiopian child who may be the bearer of a miracle.

Gloria Naylor, author of Women of Brewster Place and Mama Day, has created perhaps her finest work in Bailey's Café. Her wonderful chorus of characters tell tales of woe and fortitude, prejudice and pride. Naylor has transformed the trials of these outcasts into timeless truths about the strengths of people everywhere.

©1993 Gloria Naylor (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Fabulous!

This is my Favorite Book! I've read it once a year since it came out. To hear it has been Amazing! The Cast did a Wonderful Job, and created a New experience for me!

Bailey's Cafe

This is a wonderfully told stories within a story that takes one on a journey through the turn of the century. I loved it --a very visual narrative. Each individual story as rich, sad,and deep as the one that came before. Ms. Naylor has captivated me just as she'd done with The Women of Brewster Place. This book was worth every penny spent.

wonderful production. reads like a play.

Stanley's (Ms. Maple's) and Eve's characters were read so well, one would think. he, or she, was listening to non -fiction... as if their stories really happened.

Great Read!!

Naylor tells an interesting tale grounded in historical facts surrounded by fantasy. Bailey's Cafe is a stopping point between here and there.

Love it!

This is a great story by a great cast! I was sad when it ended!

Gloria Naylor's Bailey's Cafe...Wow!

What made the experience of listening to Bailey's Café the most enjoyable?

Gloria Naylor wrote an amazing book. She captured the nuances of people's struggles and turned them into art. This book is well written, emotionally intelligent and complex. It's smart and beautiful. It has added to my life.

What did you like best about this story?

THE STORY!

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

I like that the book had multiple narrators. It made it easy to follow.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES!

Pure Poetry

Gloria Naylor writes prose with the cadence of the Blues. She introduces characters that we prefer to overlook on the street, and allows the reader a glimpse into who they are deep inside.

A Decent Read

I liked the book. I wouldn't say I fell in love with the story or anything, but it was okay. It kinda fell off towards the end. The narrators were great.

Very upsetting

I don’t know what I was expecting but it was not that. I’m going to have nightmares. I wasn’t expecting that.

my favorite audiobook yet!

do not miss this one. I already loved gloria Naylor from reading mama day, so I figured this would be good. it was even better than I'd hoped. lots of sad in it, but it has a bigger story to tell than sorrow. Naylor was the real deal. she was a genius & will be missed. great cast of narrators. my favorite ensemble audiobook, and I've enjoyed others.