This book was a very good book. I would recommend it for anyone to read. I loved how detailed the book was in its description of each character. It was so well descripted that I felt as if I knew each person in the book. The book is also very interesting it is very hard to put down the book in certain spots. All of the women described in the book are completely different, but they all live in the same area. I think by changing the focus of the character causes the reader to never be bored. But at the same time for some of the characters I wanted to know more about them and what happened to them. ( )

Painful, eloquent, strongly anti-male. The difficulties of women living on a NYC slum street. ( )

I don't believe this stands up to the quality of the counter collection, The Men of Brewster Place, but nevertheless it is an engaging puzzle of women who all live in the same area. The variety of stories and voices here make this a quick and thoughtful read which I'd recommend to anyone, either as a somewhat broken novel or as a wonderfully woven together collection of short stories. It is something to enjoy and treasure. ( )

I read this in college during my African-American female writer phase. I really liked it at the time, but don't remember a whole lot about it anymore. I think Oprah co-opted it and made it into a TV mini-series. ( )

A heavy and sad tale, moving at times, but also fairly cosmetic, storytelling without much of an atmosphere. Good twist in the end, though.