In these fifteen superb stories, written in a style at once ineffable and immediately recognizable, Toni Cade Bambara gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, in scenes shifting between uptown New York and rural North CaroLina. A young girl suffers her first betrayal. A widow flirts with an elderly blind man against the wishes of her grown-up children. A neighborhood loan shark teaches o white social worker a lesson in responsibility. And there is more. Sharing the world of Toni Cade Bambara's "straight-up fiction" is a stunning experience.
On December 9, 1995, Toni Cade Bambara died of cancer at the age of 56. In its obituary of her, The New York Times called Bambara, "a major contributor to the emerging genre of black women's literature."
Praise
Praise
"Ms. Bambara grabs you by the throat...she dazzles, she charms." --Chicago Daily News
"Among the best portraits of black life to have appeared in some time." -- Saturday Review
"Bambara presents situations that build like improvisations on a melody....As drawn with spirit and subtlety. [Her characters] are-even in their defeats-a pleasure to watch."