SOURCE: "Soundings," in New Statesman, Vol. 107, No. 2771, April 27, 1984, p. 22.

In the following excerpt, McRobbie praises Gorilla, My Love for its political focus, poetic aspects, and its accurate representations of African-American culture.

[Gorilla, My Love,] Toni Cade Bambara's collection of short stories written over the last 15 years is so great it lifts you off the ground. It lets you hear the best sounds of the (black American) city and treats you to a series of narratives which move past you like flickering images from a silent movie. When they do slow down they resemble those photographs whose naturalness makes them seem like chance snapshots, but whose simplicity belies the craft, skill, artifice and imagination of the photographer.

Together the stories sail effortlessly into that territory much beloved and preciously guarded by men. For so many writers and sociologists, musicians and film-makers (all men), the city has been the subject...