Product Description

The explosive novel that introduced #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan-now in a new trade edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #419971 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451216717
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Mildred Peacock is broke and has no future prospects. She lives in a dilapidated house in a poverty-stricken Detroit suburb. She has a violently abusive, alcoholic husband who can't hold a job but keeps a mistress. She has five children, though she's only 27. She's black. One would think that a book about this woman's life would be dreary. The surprise of this accomplished first novel, however, is its zest and its extraordinarily positive portrayal of an impoverished family's struggle to overcome its problems. The book will be compared with Alice Walker's The Color Purple, partly because of the fine quality of its prose and partly because some of the thematic materialwhat it's like to be a poor, black woman in Americais similar. But where Walker's novel describes how things used to be, McMillan's narrative is firmly contemporary. Mama is a solid performance.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Mama , a first novel, tells of a proud black woman, Mildred Peacock, and her five children. After a violent fight, Mildred throws her drunken husband out of the house. On her own in the poor town of Point Haven, Michigan, Mildred scrimps and drinks, works and goes on welfare, struggling to raise her kids and keep her sanity. Mildred's closest bond is to her oldest daughter, Freda, and their lives parallel each other's progress from despair to hope. The book's main weakness is that the author apparently could not decide what to leave out. She also has not decided who her audience is: at times she seems to be writing to blacks, at other times to be explaining things to naive white readers. Although the story has power, it lacks focus and a clear point of view. Janet Boyarin Blundell, MLS, Brookdale Community Coll. Adjunct Faculty, Lincroft,
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Terry McMillan is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the novels Disappearing Acts, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and A Day Late and a Dollar Short, and the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction. She lives in northern California with her family.

Customer Reviews

Gritty, Real, Great! That from a white girl...
This is my third Terry McMillan novel and once again, I am a huge fan. Her books are REAL, lively, and full of life's lessons and hurts. And although I am white, this family story resonates in my head as my own.

Mama, the mother of five, is a struggling black woman who's lived in near poverty her entire life. She is strong, opinionated, bossy, with a grit that only comes from living life the hard way, but also has the character to 'want a back yard', shine the windows and keep her babies polite, hard workers and knowin' they got some good in this life. All of that while she put up with thier Daddy, a boozer and abuser, who Mildred (Mama) finally cuts loose.

The story goes on for a couple of decades, with each of her babies lives opening like a flower. All the while, Mildred is growing and then wilting, on and on...

This story is real! NO family has happy or unhappy endings. We are all on a journey that doesn't stop... and Terry McMillan knows how to display this more than any other modern writer I've experienced!

Awesome, excellent, terrific!!

I Loved it!!
This book was wonderful, when they cried, I cried, when they laughted, I laughted!! I read this book in 92' I can still remember most of the details. I know that when reading I wanted so most for each of the daughters to accomplish something and at end some did and some didn't. A MUST READ, ENJOY

Another fine book from Ms. McMillan
I have enjoyed reading Terry McMillan's books from the moment I picked up "Waiting to Exhale" and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." I love Ms. McMillians sassiness in her characters and her straight forward, in your face approach.

This book was another hit as far as I am concerned. It was another page turner that I could not put down. I may not have like the characters personally, such as Mama, she needed a swift kicked in the butt. I found her to be very selfish and cold. She whinned to much for me and I would not have given her my forwarding address if I were one of her children. She was a horrible example for her children in a lot of ways. God's hands were helping these children survive and thrive in a desolate place.

Terry, thanks for writing this story. I love your style and wish you continued success. I am looking forward to reading your next book.