"Gloria just gets smoother and better, doesn't she? The Men of Brewster Place is sort of like a clear, cool mountain stream; too cold to wade in; too swift to dare take a drink from; yet clear and inviting nonetheless: sort of like black men. 'Difficult and dangerous; delicate and deep,' in the words of James Baldwin. Maybe more like a winter day with that clear blue sky and though the sun is shining we know we need protection before going out. A natural precaution that in no way spoils the adventure; that, indeed, allows us to interact with varying phenomena. I'm so glad to know what happened to Basil and why he didn't return. Ben needed to tell his story. C. C. Baker has reason for rage albeit misplaced. The men are standing on the mountain top looking over into the valley. They, too, have dreams that are being deferred, no, destroyed. Gloria was very brave to once again follow this trail into the uncharted territory of the heart." --Nikki Giovanni

Dear Reader,

"Two or three things I know for sure: and one of them is that telling the story all the way through is an act of love." 
--Dorothy Allison

Fifteen years ago I wrote The Women of Brewster Place and whenever I traveled and spoke publicly about the book, I inevitably got the question, "Where are the men?" This always struck me as curious since I thought the title of the novel was self-evident. But what people were really asking was, where is the rest of the story? Or should I say, the other side of the story. It has taken me these many years to decide finally that I wanted to give the men who had appeared briefly in The Women a voice of their own. Like many in this country I was profoundly moved by the Million Man March and the images of all those black men calling themselves to task, promising to return home and be better citizens by concentrating on being better fathers and brothers. The march provided an alternative to the popular media image of the troubled black man. In The Men of Brewster Place, the women are still present, but they take a back seat as I look at these men in all their complexity, and in their relationships to their families, their community. But above all, I wrote The Men of Brewster Place as a testament to the hidden majority, men like my father who worked hard all of their lives, who struggled to keep their homes together against incredible odds and who remained even after their deaths unsung, unknown.