Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000)

Maud Martha is plain. This is a plain novel, too.

I'm awed by this little gem, the only novel written by poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

This isn't a work of major ideas or heart-stopping events or clever literary techniques that will astound you. Nothing wrong with those kinds of works, but that isn't what this is. What it is, is a sure-footed walk with poet Brooks, taking you where she has been, a place she wants you to see too.

Maud Martha is a black woman in America mid-century.

It's a story of her show more every day awareness about every day things. Maud Martha is not special, not admired, not pretty. She is not especially happy nor especially sad. She is one human life among billions.

Like a dandelion.

She makes observations of the things that give her joy and heartache, in her own silent, poetic voice. She makes do, does without, wishes for more, wishes for better, feels her feelings: of lament, fear, nostalgia, anger, boredom, resignation. And feels them without self-pity. Somehow, she doesn't scream (what would be the point of that).

She doesn't often deceive herself about this life,

She was afraid to suggest to him that, to most people, nothing at all “happens.” That most people merely live from day to day until they die. That, after he had been dead a year, doubtless fewer than five people would think of him oftener than once a year. That there might even come a year when no one on earth would think of him at all.

I wanted to say to Maud Martha--to Brooks, so many times while reading, thank you, that "Yes. Yes. That's it. That's the thing I've been wanting someone to share." show less

A novella composed of short, lyrical vignettes, Maud Martha follows the eponymous protagonist over some 20 years, from childhood through to marriage and motherhood from the '20s through to the end of WW2. Maud is bright and sentimental and imaginative, stuck in an unsatisfying marriage and a run-down apartment in a racist city, but perpetually full of day dreams and hope for the future. Gwendolyn Brooks' prose makes the everyday beautiful and conjures up vividly what life must have been like show more in a mid-century, predominantly Black and working-class community in Chicago. Definitely recommended. show less

I loved Maud Martha as a character and as a representation of Black womanhood in the early 20th century, but I found the structure of the novel left me wanting something more. While Brooks’ writing was easy to live in for extended periods of time (partially due to her grounding, evocative descriptions), the fragmented approach to storytelling made it hard for me to stay or want to stay rooted in the plot. I spent many chapters waiting for a clarity, contextualizing, or feeling that never show more came. Thus, I ended the novel with the sense of having experienced something enjoyable but not-quite-finished.

Despite my critiques, I found Brooks’ writing beautiful in an almost mundane way. She made everyday moments and experiences vivid in a way I want to study and, while her narrative structure didn’t fully work for me in her fiction, I have the sense I’ll appreciate it more in her poetry. I look forward to hopefully trying one of her poetry collections later this year to test that thought. show less

This stunning little book poses a question, or rather this reader was constantly pursued by the question while reading, is an ordinary life- unspectacular in its existence, bearing cherished childhood memories that most children have, with its grievances (petty and genuine) outside of the unusual, although shaped by the systemic oppressions and pressures persons categorized as her race face, devoid of grand tragedy or turbulence, worth telling? And the resounding answer that is confirmed show more turning every page: yes!

Maud Martha is a sensitive child. She's aware of the way life around her is arranged: her race, the darker shade of her colour, her social standing, all connive against her. It affects everything from the common desirability humans crave—to attract and be beheld as beauty, to the treatment she receives from strangers, to where she lives, the employment available to her, in short the course her life takes. She observes the shifts and turns of life; she grows up and cultivates the passions for the arts she's cherished since she was a child, and her beliefs of empathy and feeling. This stunning book is reminiscent of the people and places in Gwendolyn Brooks’s wonderful poetry, and both the poetry and this book are enriching reading experiences I'd highly recommend. show less