seebrandyread's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
In Midnight Birds, Mary Helen Washington has compiled 15 pieces of short fiction that illustrate the contemporary (for 1980) experience of Black women. Broken into 8 sections, each section represents a different issue like motherhood, sex, and the Black woman's place in history. Even though many of these topics have been expanded and become more nuanced since this collection was released, it was still interesting seeing where these writers and thinkers were at the time.
There are 15 stories included but only 9 writers. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, but it made me aware of the dearth of stories like these at the time. One writer, in her introduction, discusses this gap in her own reading as a child and an adult. While there may not be a variety of writers, their styles are all quite different from the prose poetry of Ntozake Shange to the lush narration of Toni Morrison.
Another aspect I appreciated was the introductions to each writer. A few writers have even written their own short appologia for their work, and I wish all of them had done this. Because so many of the writers have multiple pieces in the book, the organization is a little awkward. Not only do these intros discuss the specific author, it also explains the stories' connections to their sections which obviously helps with context. However, there is sometimes a lot of space between an author's stories.
The collection touches on violence by Black men, white men, and police as well as the rift between Black and white women in feminism which are still issues being discussed and debated. Just about all these stories are about straight cisgendered women, so there are big gaps in representation, but I know these conversations have been deepened and expanded in the last 40 years. These writers laid a strong framework for work being produced today.
There are 15 stories included but only 9 writers. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, but it made me aware of the dearth of stories like these at the time. One writer, in her introduction, discusses this gap in her own reading as a child and an adult. While there may not be a variety of writers, their styles are all quite different from the prose poetry of Ntozake Shange to the lush narration of Toni Morrison.
Another aspect I appreciated was the introductions to each writer. A few writers have even written their own short appologia for their work, and I wish all of them had done this. Because so many of the writers have multiple pieces in the book, the organization is a little awkward. Not only do these intros discuss the specific author, it also explains the stories' connections to their sections which obviously helps with context. However, there is sometimes a lot of space between an author's stories.
The collection touches on violence by Black men, white men, and police as well as the rift between Black and white women in feminism which are still issues being discussed and debated. Just about all these stories are about straight cisgendered women, so there are big gaps in representation, but I know these conversations have been deepened and expanded in the last 40 years. These writers laid a strong framework for work being produced today.
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