Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Street

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The Street by Ann Petry

4 reviews

walkie_check's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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booksarefriends_notfood's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I started this book for a class but found that I really enjoyed finishing it outside of the classroom setting. It offers great commentary on racism, survival, capitalism, and the darker side of the American Dream. This book had some very enlightening points about the oppression of POC and impoverished people, as well as how those two points correlate. It's a book that still holds relevance in our society today and is worth reading.

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_inge_'s review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This book is both technically well written and packs an emotional punch as well. The number of ways that our main character Lutie is taken advantage of and being kept back is astounding. It makes the ending somewhat understandable - although also quite abrupt. But maybe that's just me being brainwashed in needing / expecting happy endings all around. Life doesn't always have happy endings.

The men in this book are all utter crap, except Bub. Talk about preying on women and seeing them as objects to be manipulated and obtained at will. The women only seem to be able to survive in some sort of comfort when they lend themselves to play along in the games the men play, even if it means oppressing other women. It's eat or be eaten it seems.

Essential reading.

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sherbertwells's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If you’re looking for something subtle, The Street is not it.

But if you’re looking for a nuancedand underrated story with strong feminist themes, you might want to stick around. Pretty soon, you won’t be able to leave.

“[The wind] did everything it could to discourage the people walking along the street. It found all the dirt and dust and grime on the sidewalk and lifted it up so that the dirt got into their noses, making it difficult to breathe; the dust got into their eyes and blinded them; and the grit stung their skins” (2)

Like the harsh setting from which it takes its name, Petry’s 1946 novel sucks you in quickly and doesn’t let you go. The story takes WWII-era Harlem, where poverty is omnipresent and the wind itself is a malevolent force. New on the block is Lutie Johnson, an African-American single mother \\determined to achieve the American Dream for herself and her 8-year-old son. As a maid for an upper-class white family, she witnesses the fruits of capitalism firsthand and often compares herself to a young Benjamin Franklin, the epitome of the entrepreneurial spirit. But to the other men and women on the block, she is little more than an attractive prize to be pursued and exploited.

Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage, notes in the introduction that illustrations of Lutie Johnson vary dramatically based on edition and publisher. My Virago Modern Classics copy shows her in respectable silhouette, clutching a purse with gloved hands, while a mass-market edition depicts “a buxom bombshell corseted into a red dress” (ix). Other covers choose to focus on her child or portray her as a strong, independent businesswoman in a power suit. But Lutie is a brilliant character, a fully-rendered human who defies stereotypes about licentious or superhuman black women. She works hard, makes jokes, sings, dances and gets angry when she’s mistreated, like anyone else. And while she often blames herself for her misfortunes, Petry makes it clear that the real villain of The Street is its title character.

It’s also the best part of the story. The simple, emotional narration explores the perspectives of many different Harlemites, from a hard-eyed madam to an alienated and obsessive superintendent, and even a paranoid white teacher at a poverty-stricken elementary school. Their myriad voices, some vindictive, others despondent, move the plot along and expose the hierarchies within Harlem society. Most characters contribute to Lutie’s troubles, whether through negligence or direct exploitation.

But despite their flaws, each character is sympathetic. Even Boots Smith, a sly bandleader whose desire for Lutie brings about disaster, has a legitimate gripe with the white society that treats him as a servant.

“You’d sell your old grandmother if you had one, he told himself. Yes. I’d sell anything I’ve got without stopping to think about it twice, because I don’t intend to learn how to crawl again. Not for anybody” (227).

I can’t emphasize enough that The Street is brilliant social commentary. Petry is exhaustive and nuanced, examining how race, class and gender work together to keep to Lutie and her son down. The most sinister character, an amiable white man named Junto, merely profits from other people’s suffering. It takes an intelligent artist like Petry to observe and comment on it.

But Petry is a better commentator than writer. While The Street’s plot is fast-paced and full of pathos, its prose is a little repetitive. Its second half plot is somewhat pulpy. Its message hits the reader over the head. And Bub, Lutie’s son, is ridiculously innocent.

In the grand scheme of things, these are minor gripes. If you choose to focus on The Street as a text rather than a book, you’ll have a good time. Or be completely horrified. In either case, Petry will have succeeded.

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