Mama Day is one of the better novels I've read in a longtime, and Mama Day is also one of the best and most unforgettable characters I've ever encountered in fiction. So much so that it took me much longer to be able to get into George and Cocoa/Ophelia's sections and stories. I found myself at first forcing myself through those sections so I could get back to a Mama Day section. She is strong, wise, experienced, opinionated, independent, driven, and (most importantly for me) a fully realized woman without having to be married or have children. You don't find a lot of characters like that and it was so wonderful to be able to immerse myself in a book driven by a woman like Mama Day. FWIW I did come around to George and Cocoa. I regularly find myself thinking about many of the characters who peopled these pages, the stories they told and the decisions they made.