SOURCE: Puhr, Kathleen M. “Healers in Gloria Naylor's Fiction.” Twentieth Century Literature 40, no. 4 (winter 1994): 518–27.

In the following essay, Puhr examines the healing power of love and the role of healers in Naylor's fiction.

During a 1993 talk in St. Louis, poet Nikki Giovanni asserted, “Black love is Black wealth.” Almost nowhere has Black love, manifesting itself in care of others, been better presented than in the novels of Gloria Naylor. Less familiar than the triumvirate of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou, Naylor won a National Book Award in 1983 for best first novel and has published three others. Her works—The Women of Brewster Place (1982), Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day (1988), and Bailey's Cafe (1992)—feature themes of ancestry, generational conflict, economic exploitation, and lost dreams. In particular, Naylor has celebrated the power of love as a force that heals, bringing peace and wholeness. Her characters share their wealth: some through...