BAILEY’S CAFE by Gloria Naylor (Vintage:...

BAILEY’S CAFE by Gloria Naylor (Vintage: $11; 229 pp.). A broken-down cafe in San Francisco provides the setting for a series of stories that coalesce into a novel. Bailey’s is not a particularly good place to eat, as the proprietor--whose name isn’t really Bailey--cheerfully admits. People come there to find listeners as they spin bitter and funny tales of black life in America during the first half of the 20th Century. A beautiful hooker reveals how her father’s extravagant affection warped her life; other women recount battles with drugs and abusive partners. When the formidable Jesse Bell recalls the destruction of her marriage, Naylor describes a meddling in-law with typical elan: “I don’t think he was anybody’s uncle cause that woulda meant he had to be somebody’s mother’s child. A woman wouldna birthed him.” For customers and readers alike, “Bailey’s Cafe” offers generous helpings of humor, sorrow and hope.