Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
I LOVE THIS STORY. ONE OF MY FAVORITE NOVELS I'VE EVER READ IN SCHOOL.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Since reading became my job, it's become increasingly rare that I get to read a book I actually like. This book, if not in my top 10 (haven't decided yet) at least gets an honorable mention. While the book does feel long (a potential strike against it) I never felt disengaged from it. The story is such a mundane premise that Petry just zooms in on almost fractally, gradually revealing more and more complexity until it climaxes in an ending that is as sudden and abrupt as it is fitting and conclusive. I really appreciate how Petry switches between the perspectives of these interconnected characters; it was really giving me Mrs. Dalloway vibes in that way, although the stakes here are so much higher and in that way the novel is arguably superior. The style really fits into a modernist aesthetic in a way that Houston A. Baker Jr. might call "mastery of forms," but at the same time the novel is also fitting into these larger conversations around race that are happening in the tradition of African American literature. Geoffrey Jacques and many others have pointed out how 1) Black and white modernist style existed in a symbiotic relationship rather than one copying the other, and 2) white modernism (in problematic ways) often relies on a notion of a racialized/primitivized other to mark itself as "high," which I only mention to clarify that I'm not saying that I think Petry is aping modernist style but rather decrying the neglect that this novel gets in discussions of modernism (just compare how brief the Wikipedia page is for The Street vs. Mrs. Dalloway.
Returning to how this novel fits within an African American literary tradition, I think it represents a move that takes place as Afam lit shifts from realism to modernism, which is that we see a lot less faith placed in a race leader figure. Instead, what becomes emphasized is that systems do not work. Here, the critique of the system is literally baked into the title, as Petry emphasizes not only that "the street" is responsible for everything that goes wrong, but that the street is really any street where they pack in poor and disproportionately Black bodies (although Petry does acknowledge the presence of some whit people, particularly in the form of immigrants). But Petry also puts a lot more nuance into her commentary (which I will only gesture to rather than drag this review on ad infinitum). Yes, Petry is critical of racial capitalism, but she really humanizes the story by showing how this American ideology of shame around poverty affects the psyche. However, her biggest contribution may be the absolutely clear way she lays out one simple thing: white people put Black people into difficult situations, then punish them when they make the "wrong" decision (white people decide what is right and wrong).
Returning to how this novel fits within an African American literary tradition, I think it represents a move that takes place as Afam lit shifts from realism to modernism, which is that we see a lot less faith placed in a race leader figure. Instead, what becomes emphasized is that systems do not work. Here, the critique of the system is literally baked into the title, as Petry emphasizes not only that "the street" is responsible for everything that goes wrong, but that the street is really any street where they pack in poor and disproportionately Black bodies (although Petry does acknowledge the presence of some whit people, particularly in the form of immigrants). But Petry also puts a lot more nuance into her commentary (which I will only gesture to rather than drag this review on ad infinitum). Yes, Petry is critical of racial capitalism, but she really humanizes the story by showing how this American ideology of shame around poverty affects the psyche. However, her biggest contribution may be the absolutely clear way she lays out one simple thing: white people put Black people into difficult situations, then punish them when they make the "wrong" decision (white people decide what is right and wrong).
Overly depressing, but good literature. I feel that I should re-read A Little Life now, for something more uplifting and less intense. (Ha!)
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is fantastic. FANTASTIC. Ann Petry has such a strong grasp of language and characterization; I find it endlessly impressive when authors manage to perspective-hop without characters' voices flattening into the same sort of blank template---especially when those perspectives layer on new meaning rather than acting as a vaguely interesting and brief diversion. The Street is claustrophobic novel that tightens with every page, and its brief glimpses of a world that could-be make its ending all the more palpable . I am not and cannot do it justice in this review; so please please please just go read it.
5/5 stars
Spoiler
and tragic5/5 stars
Such a masterpiece! haunting, tragic, and heartbreaking! I really feel for the female characters in this! Moved me to tears!
36: The Street by Ann Petry...also on my shelf for years (since it was blurbed on the AP Lit. exam in...what year? Maybe 2016 or so?)...and plucked from the shelf due to being May's read for the Now Read This book club. I failed to finish it before the end of the month or before the discussions took place. I'm disappointed in myself for that.
This is another tremendous book to read RIGHT now. And Now Read This certainly didn't even know what was coming at the end of May when they made this the May book months before.
Petry tells the story of Mrs. Lutie Johnson, a prinicipled black woman, living in Harlem in the 1940s (best I can tell, though there's only little mention of war; the book was originally published in 1946). She's separated from her husband, raising an 8-year-old son, Bub, on her own, and doing her very best to make ends meet and improve their lives, all while living, now, on The Street. The Street is 116th Street in Harlem...New York City.
And The Street is also a character of its own in this novel. It ultimately impacts what its residents do and what they cannot do, how they will live and how they are stopped from living, how they will wake up each day to routine and have hope and then have that hope squelched by...all that the street also represents.
And for my reading friends with critical tastes like mine, this is definitely a work of literary merit, with layers of discussable much and passages worthy of analysis, motifs developed throughout, themes rich, little left to chance. The only thing I questioned at all, really, is the representation of time...and how Lutie got it all in each day. And yet I am willing to accept that this could also just be evidence of how hard she really worked and how "open late every night" the Street and much of NYC is for business, even then. But that's a discussion I'd enjoy having with anyone. Note that the newest edition includes a new introduction by Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, Silver Sparrow, Leaving Atlanta...)
I'm not going to tell you Lutie's story, for you need to read it yourself to truly appreciate her and all of Petry's beautifully and well-written, sad book. I'm struggling these days to appropriately convey what it means when I say I "enjoyed" reading a particular book, or it's a "good" book...and then you take my advice and read it and say, "That was terribly sad." "That was so painful to read." "That was such a hard/troubling/etc. story." I know. I agree.
But the reading of these books, and the experience of walking in Lutie's shoes--and in Min's, in Bub's, in Mrs. Hedges's--in this book, for instance, helps me/us to better understand that important lesson taught so valuably in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which I continually and absolutely value. Every single read provides a lesson in empathy, in understanding. And, my friends: that is always, always what I gain from reading a "good" book; I feel like I've walked in someone else's shoes for that little while, like I better understand--when the book is well-written like this one--the life of someone else and one I will never myself live...but seek to better understand.
Be well. And tell me when you've read this one so we can talk, please.
This is another tremendous book to read RIGHT now. And Now Read This certainly didn't even know what was coming at the end of May when they made this the May book months before.
Petry tells the story of Mrs. Lutie Johnson, a prinicipled black woman, living in Harlem in the 1940s (best I can tell, though there's only little mention of war; the book was originally published in 1946). She's separated from her husband, raising an 8-year-old son, Bub, on her own, and doing her very best to make ends meet and improve their lives, all while living, now, on The Street. The Street is 116th Street in Harlem...New York City.
And The Street is also a character of its own in this novel. It ultimately impacts what its residents do and what they cannot do, how they will live and how they are stopped from living, how they will wake up each day to routine and have hope and then have that hope squelched by...all that the street also represents.
And for my reading friends with critical tastes like mine, this is definitely a work of literary merit, with layers of discussable much and passages worthy of analysis, motifs developed throughout, themes rich, little left to chance. The only thing I questioned at all, really, is the representation of time...and how Lutie got it all in each day. And yet I am willing to accept that this could also just be evidence of how hard she really worked and how "open late every night" the Street and much of NYC is for business, even then. But that's a discussion I'd enjoy having with anyone. Note that the newest edition includes a new introduction by Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, Silver Sparrow, Leaving Atlanta...)
I'm not going to tell you Lutie's story, for you need to read it yourself to truly appreciate her and all of Petry's beautifully and well-written, sad book. I'm struggling these days to appropriately convey what it means when I say I "enjoyed" reading a particular book, or it's a "good" book...and then you take my advice and read it and say, "That was terribly sad." "That was so painful to read." "That was such a hard/troubling/etc. story." I know. I agree.
But the reading of these books, and the experience of walking in Lutie's shoes--and in Min's, in Bub's, in Mrs. Hedges's--in this book, for instance, helps me/us to better understand that important lesson taught so valuably in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which I continually and absolutely value. Every single read provides a lesson in empathy, in understanding. And, my friends: that is always, always what I gain from reading a "good" book; I feel like I've walked in someone else's shoes for that little while, like I better understand--when the book is well-written like this one--the life of someone else and one I will never myself live...but seek to better understand.
Be well. And tell me when you've read this one so we can talk, please.
Amazing how relevant this book is, considering it was first published in 1946. Heartbreaking and thought provoking.
I stumbled upon a wonderful free radio version by the BBC.
I think it’s abridged, but I didn’t feel it was missing the essence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000htwn
I stumbled upon a wonderful free radio version by the BBC.
I think it’s abridged, but I didn’t feel it was missing the essence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000htwn