Summary

"Black Is My Favorite Color" is a short story that can be found in Bernard Malamud's Complete Short Stories.

As the story begins, Charity Quietness, who we soon learn is a cleaning woman, is eating her lunch of two hard-boiled eggs while sitting in the bathroom of Nat Lime's Harlem apartment. As Charity eats, Nat has his lunch - a ham sandwich and coffee - in the kitchen.

Nat, a forty-four year old Jewish bachelor, explains to the reader that when Charity first came to clean for him a year and a half earlier, he invited her to have lunch with him at his kitchen table. On that first day, Charity did sit at the table, but left after a moment and bringing her lunch with her, settled in the bathroom to continue with her meal. And although Nat has told...