Review 533: The Street

The Street by Ann Petry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a powerful book! According to the summary this was Ann Petry’s first book, which was published in 1946 and “hailed by critics as a masterwork”. Wikipedia says she was the first African-American woman author to sell over one-million books. So why does it seem like this author is forgotten?

This book takes place in Harlem in the 1940s. A young woman, now a single parent, is trying to make a better life for herself and her child. She's been working too hard, lost her husband to another woman for working too much. Her dad tried to help her but without working and selling home-made whisky wasn't a good environment to raise a boy.

The descriptions are quite detailed. The book opens up with Lutie Johnson walking down The Street looking for an apartment. The wind is bitterly cold and howling. She finds an apartment building, which has dark hallways and dark rooms, but the descriptions are so well written you can see it clearly. She takes it, as this is as good as any she will find, but resolves to move as soon as she can.

Without giving away everything that happens (I've hardly mentioned anything), Lutie is a smart woman, still young and attracts unwanted attention of men. She is focused on improving her situation, but is thwarted at every turn. She blames The Street, she blames the system, she blames whites. And the way the book is written you can’t blame her, nor what she ends up doing. The climax of the book a surprise, but not entirely.

I will definitely look for another book by this author.