The Street

I hated this book. It was so hopeless. I felt for Lutie but I can’t understand why people make excuses for men ( and this was my reason for deducting a star). She was struggling to make ends meet but at the first chance her husband got he cheated and left. The sad thing is not much has changed because we love having baby mamas and the grass is always greener on the other side. We don’t understand commitment, working together to change our circumstances and we take comfort in blaming everyone else but ourselves. The crabs in a barrel mentality still has its grip because the goal is always to outdo each other, to feel we are better than others. I do agree that those were dire circumstances but now, opportunities have presented itself and we don’t take advantage of it and then blame racism. Until we understand that education is our only hope, our life will seem as hopeless as Lutie. The predatory nature of the street, was the perfect backdrop to the ending because at the end of the day no one wins and until as a people we start caring for each other and not looking to “conquer and subdue” we will never get ahead.

I think I saw this title on an Oprah list of African American writers recommended to read for Black History Month. From the first page to the last, my soul welled with tears. Tears of hope, anger, hopelessness... such vivid writing, such a sad tale.I saw a lot of my youth in Bub's character; a lot of my mother's difficulty navigating a society not designed to include her as I read Lutie's story. I'm not the most voracious reader, so it's not hard for me to say there are too many books that will stick/have stuck with me for a long time, but this one will. Truly, a book I'm glad to have read.

The third selection of the Spilling Tea Book Club was “The Street” by Ann Petry, which is getting a well deserved revival right now. Championed by Tayari Jones (who wrote the foreword for a new edition) and mentioned even as recently in the New York Times by Isabel Wilkerson (who wrote the new Oprah pick, Caste), this book made it on my radar and into my book club. This novel was the first to exceed sales of one million books by a black, female writer. I highly recommend this excellent book.Lutie Johnson is trying to make a better life for her and her son, Bub, when she leaves her husband and father in Jamaica, Queens, and moves to Harlem, 116th street between 7th and 8th avenues. Just after moving in, Lutie meets the characters of the street: Jones, the super; his wife, Min; the first-floor Madam, Mrs. Hedges; and bandleader, Boots. Lutie is soon wrapped up in the crime and racism of the street, while aspiring to be a singer.This book is a thriller where some menace lurks around every corner on the street. But looming large over this story is the villain, racism. As the novel progresses, we learn the backstory of the many characters on the street, the actions they have taken to survive in a racist society which does not value their lives, let alone dreams. The characters manipulate trying to have some control in their lives. Lutie makes every good, noble choice that she can, but she is always thwarted up until the end. She is used by her father, her husband, the people in her new building. She can’t escape the suffering no matter how much she tries. Her only hope is signing at a casino at night, run by the proprietor, Junto, who also owns a bar on the street. While written in the 40s, this book feels extremely modern. The writing is excellent with a structure that builds tension by slowly revealing the history and intentions of the characters. This novel is like a chess game, slowly the pieces are put in position for an ending in a checkmate I didn’t see coping. The beautiful writing captures the aspirations of Lutie and the innocence of Bub, while trying to escape the grimy, trap of the street.“The Street” is brilliant from it’s structure, to it’s imagery. It is a book about racism, thrilling and horrifying, yet it does not preach. Petry shows the despair of racism through this story with a keen eye to detail and well observed characters. This book should be considered a classic and read widely for these reasons. Read my full review on Goodreads. ★★★★★ ◊ Trade Paperback ◊ Fiction - Literary, Thriller ◊ Published by Mariner Books on March 15, 1998. ◾︎

I could not put it down. Ann Petry is a brilliantly amazing writer. She changed my world and how I think. Another review included the sentence "she re-wired my brain," and that's exactly how I felt after reading this book...just....WOW.

Oh I really liked this book but the end was so difficult. Maybe it is more real life than I expected. Maybe it was the only answer, but without giving anything away, I cannot make this work in my head. The main character obviously had some unresolved issues that we see in hindsight but in so many ways it breaks my heart as I am sure it did hers as well but the book ended so abruptly. Being optimistic, I could reconcile things possibly by looking into the future several years out, but at the time I am sure there was no good solution for Lutie Johnson.

I’m more than halfway through the book but wanted to go ahead and write a brief review. I am addicted to reading this novel! I can hardly put it down, and every time I do, I find myself picking it back up to read just one more chapter. And then one turns into two, and so on. The author does such a great job of making you connect with the characters of the book. I love how the book doesn’t just focus on one character, but you get to know each of them intimately. You get to see from each of their viewpoints, and how their lives are so intertwined with each other’s without them even being aware of how intertwined they really are. I’m excited to see how the novel ends, but at the same time, I don’t want it to end. In short, this novel has completely captured me.Update: Hey ya’ll, I’m back. I finished the book and let me just say how heartbreaking the ending was :( I couldn’t help but to feel the story came to an abrupt ending and I still had so many questions and things I wondered about. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I think the author rushed the book and then ended it with little to no explanation just for the sake of ending the book. I just didn’t want it to end and I also wasn’t expecting that climactic ending. I want more! Or a sequel!

Wow, what a powerful book, written contemporarily, set in Harlem in the late 1940s. A young woman is a victim of her time, misogyny, racism and just plain bad luck, and her desperate attempts to claw out of the life that she has been thrust into, and to save her son from the same fate. Your heart breaks for her and her son, and also for those around her who fight their own battles.It's not an easy read, as much of the text develops around the internal monologues of the various characters, each of whom have their own horror stories to tell, and who are all trapped in the system forced upon them, just trying to survive. But this device works well, because as the characters try to rationalise what happens to them, it examines the issues they face from all directions, as they seek they find answers that they can live with, or at least a way out that causes least damage.I may not have sold this well - it's not as dry as I've made it sound, the sense of place and community is strong and you yearn for Lutie to finally break free, she and her son are such likeable characters. Even Mrs Hedges has her good qualities. I thoroughly recommend this, it's sad that a book centring on endemic racism written in 1948 still has much to teach us, and that alone shows how much further we still have to go.

Illuminating and gripping novel set in New York during 2nd World War. The poverty of the main character, a young black mother, who struggles to earn enough to support her and her son, in the face of racism and sexism, is painful but also admirable. Very much a page turner, I was gripped by the need to know how she would overcome.

This was a book which bought the grim realities of being poor and black living in America. It is relentless and lugubrious in tone. Certainly an important read. There was nothing that gave it an uplift even those characters who were down and dirty with their fellow men. There must have been some apertures where light would shine but I could not find them. A searing expose and one that cannot be forgotten, depicting a time where to possess black skin marked you out as the prey for all to attack. Teddy

I came to this book via a review by Tayari Jones [author of An American Marriage] who lamented the lack of critical aclaim Ann Petry has received. I would compare this book to the Grapes of Wrath - it is about a time and a place and one family's experience but it has a power beyond that; I think she does deserve to sit alongside Steinbeck and should probably be on the school syllabus.

This is a story of a black lady’s struggle to rise above and climb out of her impoverished circumstances, set mainly in 1940’s New York. It is a compelling read shedding light on the social history of the time and place through fictional, but believable characters. Enjoyed is perhaps not the most appropriate word to use, but I found it hard to put down and I am glad that I have read it.