Some People follows several generations of black and white people in the late 1800's to mid 1900's with most of the book focusing on heroine Eula Too (you have to read the book to understand the name) and Madame/Elizabeth, Eula Too's employer. The storyteller is the unborn child of Eula Too.

Eula Too comes to live with Madame, as a teen-ager, after being brutally attacked and saved by the latter, the owner of a high-end brothel. Eula Too moves into the mansion located outside of Chicago and becomes Madame's paid companion, gradually becoming invaluable to the older white woman. As their relationship develops, we get to meet lots of other interesting, multi-layered characters: Rita, the whore who wants to have a decent life; Dolly, the calm steady force in Madame's house; Lona, the tortured soul who cannot rise above her past; Ha who longs to return to China for her true love; Lamont who longs for love again after the death of his beloved wife; and Eula, the main character's mother who consistently wallows in her own shortcomings. There are many more people, almost too many, actually. Yet, no matter their backgrounds, the characters all share a common desire to find their places in the world, to have some semblance of peace, joy, and fulfillment. And as many of us know, these are oft' times not easily achievable goals.

While I do recommend this book to you, I also have to caution you on the language, which I found distracting. As the story is told by the unborn child the prose is repetitive and very simplistic: so much so that I found myself drifting sometimes when I was reading Cooper's tale. I think Cooper must be kind of quirky to come up with something like this. Thank goodness that I am already a fan, as I was able to muddle through the stumbling blocks to embrace the real story, which was very beautiful.