Children
of the Night
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Summary
In this landmark anthology the companion volume to Langston Hughes’s 1967 classic, The Best Short Stories by Black Writers Gloria Naylor presents the finest African-American short stories of the last three decades. Arranged in four thematic sections “Remembering,” “Affirming,” “Revealing the Self Divided,” and “Moving On” the thirty-seven stories included capture the many facets of the black experience in America. Featured are works by Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Terry McMillan, and Ntozake Shange, among many others.
Recommended by: Booklist
“In this brilliant collection of superb writing, each story provides keen insights told in heartbreakingly beautiful prose.”
Author Biography
Gloria Naylor won the National Book Award for The Women of Brewster Place. She is also the author of the novels Mama Day, Bailey’s Cafe, and Linden Hills, as well as many short stories. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Topics to Consider
Does a reader read in ‘color’? How significant is racial identity to the authors? To readers?
What section of the book did you relate to the most ¾ Remembering, Affirming, Revealing the Self Divided, or Moving On? Why?
Which author’s short story did you like the most? Why? Which one the least?
In “The Tale of Gorgik,” does Delany seem to suggest that there are degrees of slavery on every social level?
In Andrea Lee’s “Mother,” what made the relationship between mother and daughter so unique?
In “The Diary of an African Nun,” do you think that the Sister is content with her lot in life? How is one able to experience contentment regardless of life’s circumstances?
Ntozake Shange writes in dialect with no capitalization in “oh she gotta head fulla hair.” How ‘foreign’ was the language to you? Is there any relationship between dialect and the recent ‘ebonics’ movement in California?
Did Edwidge Danticat’s “New York Day Women” leave you wanting to know more about this mother and daughter and why they did what they did? How does their relationship compare to other mother-daughter relationships in the book? In your life?