• Mama Day

  • By: Gloria Naylor
  • Narrated by: uncredited
  • Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (263 ratings)

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Mama Day  By  cover art

Mama Day

By: Gloria Naylor
Narrated by: uncredited
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Publisher's summary

Miranda Day, known as "Mama Day", is the elderly matriarch of Willow Springs, a small sea island off the southeast coast of the United States.

Mama Day finds herself pitted in mortal combat with dark forces that threaten the body and soul of her beloved great-niece, Cocoa, who has gone "mainside" and married an urban Northerner.

Mama Day will use her ancient knowledge of herbal medicine and her judicious but dangerous use of magical powers in this bitter struggle.

A multi-voice production.

©2008 Gloria Naylor (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The beauty of Naylor's prose is its plainness, and the secret power of her third novel is that she does not simply tell a story but brings you face to face with human beings living through the complexity, pain and mystery of real life." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Mama Day

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    184
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Classic

This is actually my favorite book. It starts slow, and the lady who first reads is not as um, skillfull as I would hope, but if you can get to what would be the third chapter, then you will find yourself at home. There are layers of relationships, both classic and unique characters, conflict, resolution, family bonds, male/female relationships. The end is particularly poignant.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant story marred by bad recording

I almost didn't make it through the opening of this book, which would have been a real tragedy. For one thing, the first two chapters are difficult and tedious. For another the recording quality is terrible. It sounds like it's been sped up and every word is clipped--almost indecipherable.

Luckily for me, i persevered. The recording quality gets bearable (though never perfect) and the book really opens up into something beautiful after the first 45 minutes or so.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Can't seem to finish

I am so sorry, but I can't seem to finish listening to this audiobook. I love audiobooks, and I prefer to listen than to read. However, the narrators of this book are making it difficult for me to do that. One (the first one) seems to have a speech impediment, and another seems to be going at an usually fast pace, almost like he's ranting for no reason. A total of three so far, and they're voices are all very distracting. Also, the first couple chapters seem to be all over the place, and oddly I'm having a hard time retaining all the characters and their relations to each other. It's too drawn out. Perhaps if I read the book for myself I would have a different outlook. Sorry, poor choice on the narrators. Perhaps I'll come back to it at another time in my life.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I don't think I can finish...

Not sure how this book received the good ratings it did but for me it is a struggle to find interest in the story, connect the dots in a cohesive manner or understand the point of this book. I am annoyed at the time and money I've spent on this book.
The performances are also not good. Robotic and silly sounding most of the time. SMH I am genuinely disappointed.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Worst performance of all the Audible stories I've listened to

Most people seem to enjoy this book. Maybe it was the slurry, poorly read audio that I had that gave me a different opinion. But, it was also the whiny, high maintenance character of Cocoa. I don't get why a caring patient guy like George would put up with her mind games.
I love herbal medicine so that was about the only part I really liked. It was tough to follow. The were parts that were never fully explained and didn't have enough metaphorical info to even make a good guess. For me, it only got interesting at the end.
I just really didn't like it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Dark and lovely story

Loved it! The narrators nailed the characters and mood of the story. To those who said they didn't like them, I say this: You have never lived in the South, if you had, you would have been drawn in and mesmerized.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Read

I really enjoyed this book. It has wonderful writing, intriguing story, fascinating characters, an overall great book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

No mystery about why the narration is uncredited

The is one of my favorite books of all time, and y'all ruined it. There are 3 narrators, one for each of the main characters, and 2 of the 3 are unlistenable. Coco's performer has some sort of speech irregularity, and her cadence is that of a 3rd grader reading her book report to the class. The sample provided is performed by the only passably decent performer, which seems like a bait and switch. I am going to have to reread the book just to get those horrendous narrations out of my head. I want my credit back.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprised

Struggled to finish. It started slow and then got good! But the end was oddly stifled.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This Book Deserves A Better Recording

This is such a wonderfully rich story full of magic and tradition and Black American hoodoo culture, and you almost miss ALL of that because the reading/recording is TERRIBLE.

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1 person found this helpful