Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

** spoiler alert ** This book was the most painfully disappointing thing I ever read.

Now, note I say disappointing, not bad. For the majority of this richly written novel, I was enraptured. As a big fan of magical realism, and especially the magical traditions of America, I loved the character of Mama Day and the mystical origins of Sapphira Wade that were hinted at throughout the book. For those who enjoyed "Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil" but wished for more Minerva, Miranda "Mama" Day will leave you feeling deliciously sated. And the back and forth between Abigail and Minerva has a charm of it's own, and reminds one of Frances and Jet from "Practical Magic" - if you're fans of either book, you might enjoy "Mama Day." Might.


I adored Coco and George's relationship: this was no boy meets girl, they instantly fall in love, then tragedy strikes situation. These characters are carefully drawn in their own right, and Naylor lavishes over every detail not only of their falling in love, but of the trials and tribulations of actually LIVING with your beloved, and sometimes to very hilarious ends (George's attempts to educate himself on feminine physiology and offer some sympathy to Coco when he thinks it might be the right 'time' are especially endearing).

The story is always brought back to Willow Island and the mysterious Sapphira, and the magical powers that reside there. When Coco is endangered by Ruby, the island root doctor, George has to make a decision about whether to save her life.

And that, my friends, is where the novel utterly, completely, and horrendously jumps the shark. The entire story has been teasing us with hints about Sapphira and her mystical powers, building up to when Mama Day asks George to cross over and discover how to save Coco. And what does George do?

He gets himself killed by a chicken, that's what.

Yes, you read that right. Naylor builds up right to the edge of a climax which will fulfill the purpose of the entire novel, and then like that! abandons the whole thing, and kills off a main character in the most insulting way possible. Somehow, George dying means Coco doesn't, and she remarries (despite having explained how she never would previously, and despite us being giving no time to mourn the lost relationship, or even understand why it happened) and the novel ends with Mama Day looking out on the island. And that's it.


Never, in my life, have I felt so much like an author reached through the pages to slap me in the face and spit in my eye as when I finished "Mama Day". This ending was so offensive, so pointless, so out of tune with the whole book until that very moment, that I've spent years wondering just why she did it. Was she watching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and thought it would be funny to end her book in a similar tone? Was she trying to make some kind of modern literature point about rebelling against the need for a climax? Did her advance run out, and she not have time to write the ending she was so clearly building up to?


Eventually, I came to a revelation - that it doesn't MATTER what her excuse for the ending is, it sucks. It's abrupt, unnecessary, pointless, stupid, and robs the audience of any ability to take the story and characters seriously. There are bad endings, and then there are BAD endings. Naylor's ending to "Mama Day" ranks up there with the very, very worst of the bunch.

So then - is the book worth reading? Well, here's the frustrating part: Naylor is a GOOD writer, and up until the ending, "Mama Day" is a GOOD book. It is BECAUSE the book is otherwise so good that the ending - so out of place and awkward and forced - is so painful. You fall in love with a book and characters, and then the author essentially gives up. You KNOW they could do better, but somehow they decided against it.


If you can enjoy a book without getting too attached to how the characters meet their end, then you might like this book. But of course, paradoxically, if you can't get attached to the characters, there's not much point in reading this kind of book. And if you get attached to the characters, you'll want to know how it all ends. And, if you do, rest assured you will be disappointed.