Mama Day, which was first published in 1988, is the third novel by African American writer and professor Gloria Naylor. The novel tells of Ophelia Day, known familiarly as “Cocoa.” Cocoa is a young woman who comes from a community called Willow Springs, located on a fictional island that straddles the border between South Carolina and Georgia. Now living in New York City, Cocoa seeks a job at an engineering firm founded by George Andrews. George refuses Cocoa the job, since she insists on taking her annual trip home to visit the matriarch of Willow Springs, named Mama Day. But when Cocoa returns to New York, she and George begin to date and soon get married. Years later they travel to Willow Springs together. George learns that Mama Day’s rival has placed a hex on Cocoa, and that her life is threatened. When a hurricane blocks all exits from the island, George must abandon his singular faith in science in order to save his love. Mama Day received generally warm praise from critics. Many critics praised the novel’s complex narrative style, and especially its unique use of the first-person plural narration to evoke the voice of the entire Willow Springs community.

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